One of the most visible difference between English and Swedish is the number of type of articles.
In English, we only have the differences of definite and indefinite articles. You could say that in English we have “a” and “an” but “an” exists because of sound and pronunciation issue.
However, in Swedish, we have two kinds of words: en words and ett words, something similar of the feminine “a” and masculine “o” articles we have in Portuguese.
Differently than in Portuguese, we can’t say if a word is en or ett word. We have to memorize all the words with the article and that’s a difficult part of the Swedish.
However, there are some easy loose rules:
- Usually, words related to people are en words.
- Most words are en words.
I’m sharing with you some words, so you can see how they are.
en stol – a chair
en pojke – a boy
en stad – a city
en bok – a book
ett bord – a table
ett barn – a child
ett land – a country
ett djur – an animal
Finally, the type of article will influence in the constructions of more complex phrases in Swedish. First, the adjective must follow the type of word. Also, if you want to use pronouns, you must know if the word is en or ett word.
I hope this explain this peculiar thing from Swedish!
Hej då!
– the learner
