Breakdown of Kvinnan på fartygets hund skäller.
hunden
the dog
kvinnan
the woman
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
skälla
bark
fartyget
the ship
Questions & Answers about Kvinnan på fartygets hund skäller.
Why is the -s attached to fartyget instead of kvinnan if the woman owns the dog?
This is a classic example of the phrasal genitive (gruppgenitiv). When a noun has a descriptive phrase attached to it, like på fartyget describing kvinnan, the entire phrase is treated as a single unit. The possessive -s is added to the very end of that unit, even if the last word (fartyget) isn't the actual owner.
We are talking about a specific dog, so why is it hund and not hunden?
In Swedish, whenever a noun is preceded by a possessive word or a genitive -s, it must take the bare indefinite form. Even though we mean a specific dog, the presence of the possessive phrase kvinnan på fartygets forces hund to drop its definite ending.
Why do we write fartygets rather than fartygs?
Because the woman is on the ship. The base phrase is kvinnan på fartyget, so we take that exact definite form (fartyget) and just stick an -s on the end. If she were on a ship, the phrase would be kvinnan på ett fartygs hund.
Doesn't this sentence look like the ship owns the dog?
Yes, grammatically it is ambiguous, just like the English translation. It could technically mean the woman is standing on top of the ship's dog! However, common sense tells Swedish speakers that the entire phrase kvinnan på fartyget represents the owner. If you needed to be absolutely clear, you could rephrase it using a relative clause, such as Hunden som tillhör kvinnan på fartyget skäller.
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