Breakdown of General Erik trodde att armén var redo.
vara
to be
tro
to believe
Erik
Erik
att
that
redo
ready (prepared)
generalen
the general
armén
the army
Questions & Answers about General Erik trodde att armén var redo.
Why is it General Erik and not the definite form Generalen Erik?
When a title, profession, or honorific comes immediately before a person's name, Swedish uses the zero article (no article at all). If the name were removed, you would use the definite form to say "The general": Generalen trodde att armén var redo.
Why use trodde instead of tyckte or tänkte for "believed/thought"?
Tro is used when you believe something to be a fact but aren't 100% certain. Tycka is used for subjective opinions or taste, and tänka refers to the actual cognitive process of thinking. Since Erik believed the army's readiness was a factual state, trodde is the correct verb here.
Why does "the army" become armén instead of arméen?
Armé is an en-word that ends in a stressed vowel. Nouns with a stressed final vowel (often French loanwords) usually just add -n for the definite singular, rather than the full -en. You see this same pattern in words like idé (idén) and filé (filén).
If the sentence was about plural subjects, like "the soldiers were ready", would redo change to redoa?
No, redo is an indeclinable adjective. This means it never changes its ending, regardless of whether the noun it describes is an en-word, an ett-word, or plural.
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