Questions & Answers about Den gamla mc:n fungerar, men den nya är trasig.
Why is there a colon in mc:n?
In Swedish, when you add grammatical endings (like the definite article, plural, or genitive -s) to an initialism or acronym, you attach them using a colon. Because mc stands for motorcykel (an en-word), its definite form becomes mc:n (the motorcycle).
How do I know whether to use den or det with an abbreviation like mc?
You look at the gender of the full noun it stands for. mc is short for motorcykel, which is an en-word (en motorcykel). Therefore, you use the en-word forms for articles and adjectives: den gamla mc:n.
How do you pronounce mc:n?
Initialisms in Swedish are usually read letter by letter using the Swedish alphabet. So mc:n is pronounced "em-se-en".
Why does the second half of the sentence just say den nya without a noun?
Swedish frequently drops the noun when it's already obvious from the context. Instead of repeating mc:n, you just use the definite adjective and article together (den nya) to mean "the new one". Notice that unlike English, Swedish doesn't use a filler word for "one" here!