Breakdown of En tjugo demonstranter står och lyssnar på talaren.
en
a, an (common)
och
and
lyssna på
to listen to
tjugo
twenty
stå
to stand
talaren
the speaker (person)
demonstranten
the demonstrator
Questions & Answers about En tjugo demonstranter står och lyssnar på talaren.
Why do we use the singular article en before the plural tjugo demonstranter?
This is a very common Swedish construction used to estimate a quantity. By putting the singular article en right before a number, it changes the meaning to "about" or "roughly." So, en tjugo demonstranter means "about twenty demonstrators."
If the noun we were counting was an "ett" word, would this change to ett tjugo?
No, it wouldn't! When used to approximate a number like this, en acts as a fixed word. Even if you were estimating the number of houses (ett hus), you would still say en tjugo hus (about twenty houses).
Why does the sentence say står och lyssnar (stand and listen) instead of just lyssnar (are listening)?
This is how Swedish expresses an ongoing action, similar to the English "-ing" form. Because Swedish doesn't have a direct present continuous tense, it often pairs a posture verb like står (stands), sitter (sits), or ligger (lies) with och (and) and the main verb to emphasize that an action is happening right now.
Is på always required after lyssnar?
Just like in English where you "listen to" someone, the Swedish verb lyssnar requires the preposition på when you specify who or what is being listened to. Talaren is the definite form of talare (speaker), so lyssnar på talaren means "listening to the speaker."
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