Breakdown of Facket representerar arbetarna på företaget.
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
företaget
the company
facket
the union
representera
to represent
Questions & Answers about Facket representerar arbetarna på företaget.
Why is the definite plural spelled arbetarna instead of arbetarena?
En arbetare is a Group 5 noun ending in -are. When forming the definite plural, Swedish drops (syncopates) the final -e before adding the suffix -na. This makes it arbetarna, which flows much better in speech than the clunky arbetarena.
Does this spelling rule apply to all nouns ending in -are?
Yes! Any noun ending in -are (which often denotes a profession or a tool) follows this exact pattern in the definite plural. For example, lärare (teachers) becomes lärarna and säljare (sellers) becomes säljarna.
Facket means "the union", but isn't the Swedish word for union en fackförening?
Yes, en fackförening is the full word. However, Swedes almost always shorten this to ett fack in daily speech. Notice that while the full compound noun is an en-word, the short version takes the neuter gender of its root word, becoming facket in the definite singular.
Why use the preposition på before företaget instead of i?