Breakdown of Smeden gör svärden kalla och klingorna vassa.
och
and
kall
cold
göra
to do, to make
vass
sharp
svärdet
the sword
smeden
the blacksmith
klingan
the blade
Questions & Answers about Smeden gör svärden kalla och klingorna vassa.
Why are kalla and vassa in the plural form, and do they care that the nouns are definite?
They act as object predicatives, which are adjectives that describe the object of the sentence. They must agree in number (plural) and gender with the nouns svärden and klingorna. However, object predicatives never take the definite form, even when the noun itself is definite. Here, the plural ending -a looks identical to the definite ending, but grammatically it is purely a plural marker.
To see this 'no definite ending' rule in action, what would the sentence look like with just one sword (svärdet)?
It would be Smeden gör svärdet kallt. Because object predicatives ignore definiteness, the adjective simply takes the neuter singular ending -t to match the ett-word svärd. It does not take the definite ending -a.
Why use gör for 'makes' here, rather than får?
You use gör when 'make' means changing a noun's state, emotion, or quality, which is usually followed by an adjective (making swords cold, making someone happy). You use får when 'make' means causing someone or something to perform an action, which is followed by an infinitive verb (like Smeden får mig att arbeta - The blacksmith makes me work).
Klingorna translates to 'the blades'. Is en klinga used for any kind of blade?
En klinga is typically used for the blade of a sword, axe, saw, or ice skates. For a standard kitchen knife, however, you would usually use the word ett blad (which is also the word for a leaf).
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