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Plurals in Swedish
We have already learnt how to make definite and indefinite nouns. Let’s focus on plurals today. We are going to learn rules that will help us predict plural indefinite forms of nouns. Ready, steady, go!
Plurals in Swedish seem to be irregular and pretty hard to learn at first sight. In fact, they are not like that in many cases! I recommend you to learn plural forms simultaneously with singular nouns.
En nouns have ten different endings. Look at the tables below to get familiar with them.
Easy-to-follow
- A into -OR
en KVINNA — KVINNOR - -E into -AR
en POJKE — POJKAR - -ARE into -ARE
en LÄKARE — LÄKARE - -ING into -AR
en KLÄNNING — KLÄNNINGAR
All rules mentioned above are very easy to follow and make the process of transformation from singular to plural smooth. The rules listed below are clear as well but could be tricky.
Not so easy-to-follow
- words with stress on the last syllable into -ER
en STATION — STATIONER - words consisting of one syllable only into -AR or -ER
en KUNG — KUNGAR
en KATT — KATTER - words ending in -ER, -EL or -EN usually into -AR
en VINTER — VINTRAR
en AXEL — AXLAR
en REN — RENAR
usually lose their -E- in the transformation process
We have managed the en nouns so far but do the ett ones have similar rules? Yes, they do and there are only two of them!
“Ett” nouns rules
- endings in a consonant have no ending in the plural
ett HUS — HUS - endings in a vowel take -N in the plural
ett PIANO — PIANON
Everyone loves irregularities, but it wouldn’t be grammar without them, would it? A mouse is irregular in English as well as in Swedish (by the way, why is it so? What did mouse and mice do to us? See examples of irregular nouns below.
en MUS (a mouse) — MÖSS (mice)
en MAN (a…
