Breakdown of Han kommer den tjugonde december.
han
he
komma
to come
den
the (with en-words)
december
December
Questions & Answers about Han kommer den tjugonde december.
Why is there no word for 'on' in this sentence?
In English we say 'on the twentieth', but Swedish doesn't use a preposition here. You just use the definite article den followed by the ordinal number, so 'on the twentieth' is simply den tjugonde.
Why is the month december written with a lowercase letter?
Unlike English, Swedish does not capitalize the names of months, days of the week, or languages unless they appear at the very beginning of a sentence.
Why does the sentence use the present tense kommer if the date is in the future?
Swedish frequently uses the present tense for future events, especially when a specific time or date is mentioned. Because the date den tjugonde december makes the timing clear, you don't need a future tense marker like ska.
How is the word tjugonde formed?
It is an ordinal number meaning 'twentieth'. In Swedish, you create the ordinal for twenty by taking the base number tjugo (twenty) and adding the ending -nde.