Breakdown of Finns det flera dyra skinkor i sortimentet?
i
in
flera
several
dyr
expensive
det finns
there is, there are
sortimentet
the assortment
skinkan
the ham
Questions & Answers about Finns det flera dyra skinkor i sortimentet?
Wait, isn't skinka (ham) an uncountable mass noun? Why is it pluralized as skinkor here?
This is a great example of a concept called 'sortpluralis' (plural of varieties). While skinka is generally uncountable when you are talking about the meat substance itself, you can pluralize it to refer to different types or varieties of it. So here, skinkor refers to distinct varieties of ham.
Could I use mer instead of flera since we are talking about a food substance?
Not in this case. Because we are using the sortpluralis form skinkor to talk about countable varieties of ham, the modifiers must also be countable. Therefore, we use flera (several) rather than the uncountable mer (more/some).
Why use flera instead of fler?
In Swedish, flera translates to 'several', while fler is the comparative form meaning 'more' (in number). This sentence is asking if there are several expensive hams in the assortment, not if there are more hams than there were before.
Why does the sentence use Finns det for a plural noun instead of something like 'Finns de'?
To express existence ('there is' or 'there are'), Swedish almost always uses the construction finns det (literally 'exists it'). The word det here acts as a fixed 'dummy pronoun' and never changes to plural, even when the noun that actually exists (skinkor) is plural.
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