Breakdown of De unga går till sjöss.
gå
to go, to walk
de
the (plural, before adjective)
ung
young
till sjöss
to sea / at sea
Questions & Answers about De unga går till sjöss.
Why does the word sjö have an -ss ending in till sjöss?
This is a fossilized genitive. Hundreds of years ago, the preposition till forced the following noun into the genitive case, usually adding an -s. Modern Swedish doesn't do this anymore, but the old grammatical rule survived in a few fixed expressions like till sjöss (to sea), till skogs (to the woods), and till bords (to the table).
Why is it spelled with a double 's' (sjöss) instead of just one?
In the old Swedish case system, nouns that ended in a stressed vowel often took an -ss ending in the genitive case instead of a single -s. Because this expression is a surviving relic from that era, it keeps the historical spelling.
Does går till sjöss mean they are physically walking to the ocean?
No, att gå till sjöss is a fixed idiom meaning to become a sailor or to start working on ships, much like "going to sea" in English. If you meant they were merely walking to the water's edge, you would use a regular phrase like går till havet or går till sjön without the historical genitive ending.
How does de unga work without a noun following it?
Just like in English, Swedish allows you to drop the noun and use a definite adjective to represent an entire group of people. De unga translates directly to "the young" or "the young people." You just pair the independent definite plural article de with the plural adjective form ending in -a.
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