Nouns: Definite form

Here are two sentences in Swedish: Titta vilken fin hund där borta! De n bruna hunden till höger ser jätteglad ut! Here, the noun 'dog' appears twice. But look carefully! The word doesn't look exactly the same in both instances.

In the first sentence, it's not completely clear which of the two dogs the speaker is talking about. Here, the noun is in i>indefinite form. In the second sentence, the speaker is a bit more precise, more specific. It is that particular dog that's referred to. Here the noun dog is in definite form.

The dog. In Swedish, nouns change when they are in definite form. And the noun dog gets the suffix EN added at the end. Here are some more examples of nouns in indefinite and definite form: En ros, den rosen En boll, den bollen En fågel, den fågeln En by, den byn En sjö, den sjön Nouns of the N-gender, ending in a consonant, are written in definite form by adding E-N at the end. For those ending with a short E and L, or a vowel, just add an N.

But if the noun is of the t-gender, then it sounds like this: Ett träd, det trädet Ett bord, det bordet Ett parti poker, det partiet Ett kafé, det kaféet Ett hjärta, det hjärtat Ett bankkonto, det bankkontot T-gender words that end with a consonant get the suffix E-T in definite form. The same thing happens with a t-gender noun ending with a long vowel. If the word ends with a short vowel on the other hand, it just ends with T. Some words, that we have borrowed from other languages are a bit tricky, because sometimes they bring along forms from the other language. Latin, for example: Ett gymnasium, det där gymnasiet.

Ett museum, det där museet. Are you still following? So far we only talked about stuff that there's one of, that is, nouns in singular form. If there are more than one, then the noun is in plural, and it sounds like this: En ros - flera rosor - de rosorna En boll - två bollar - de bollarna En sak - några saker - de sakerna En tå - fem tår - de tårna All these nouns get their plural form from the suffixes O-R, A-R, E-R or just R. And to write them in the definite form plural: keep the plural suffix and add the suffix N-A.

But these aren't the only ways for nouns to form plural. Listen to these: Ett knä - några knän — De knäna* Ett frimärke - Två frimärken -- de frimärkena These nouns get their plural form with the suffix -N. And if they are to be in definite form too, then you keep the plural suffix and just add -A. Then there are some nouns that don't get any suffix at all in indefinite plural form. These for example: En lärare - några lärare - de lärarna En källare - flera källare - de källarna Ett träd - två träd - de träden Ett bord - några bord - de borden For these nouns, that don't have any suffix at all in indefinite plural form, you'll have to keep track of the gender of the noun.

Is it n-gender? Then just cut the last vowel and add the suffix N-A, and you have the noun in definite form plural. Is it t-gender? Just add the suffix E-N, and you get the definite plural form. All of these fairly complicated rules will come naturally to those who have grown up speaking Swedish, but for those learning Swedish as a second language, this takes a long time to master.

In English it's easier. Simply put the 'definite article' - the word "the" in front of a noun, and you have it in its definite form. As easy as a small pancake. As easy as the small pancake? As easy as the crèpe??...