Breakdown of Vår unge älskar att simma.
älska
to love
att
to (before a verb)
simma
to swim
vår
our
ungen
the kid (informal)
Questions & Answers about Vår unge älskar att simma.
Why is it vår unge and not vår ungen?
After a possessive pronoun like vår (our), Swedish always uses the indefinite form of the noun. Even though we are talking about a specific kid, the possessive word makes it definite enough, so we say vår unge instead of vår ungen.
Why do we use vår instead of vårt here?
The possessive pronoun must agree with the gender of the noun it describes. Because unge is an en-word (en unge), we use the common gender form vår. If the sentence used the ett-word barn (child), it would be vårt barn.
Is unge used exclusively for human children?
No, while en unge is a very common and informal word for a human child (much like kid in English), it is also the standard word for an animal's baby or cub. For example, a bear cub is called en björnunge.
Why do we need the word att before simma?
The verb älska (to love) requires the infinitive marker att (to) before the next verb, similar to English. However, remember that many common Swedish verbs do not use att before another verb. If you used a word like vill (wants to) or brukar (usually does), you would drop it and just say vår unge vill simma.
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