| Grammar Notes: Bilden visar en ung flicka i en gul klänning. Hon kramar en stor hund. Translation: The picture shows a young girl in a yellow dress. She is hugging a big dog. Word by word - Bilden — “the picture”. Definite form of en bild (a picture). Noun, common gender, singular definite. - visar — “shows” / “is showing”. Present tense of the verb visa (infinitive). - en — “a” / “an”. Indefinite article for common-gender singular nouns. - ung — “young”. Adjective, common-gender singular indefinite form. - flicka — “girl”. Noun, common gender, singular indefinite. - i — “in”. Preposition. In i en gul klänning, it means “wearing” or “in”. - en — “a” / “an”. Indefinite article for common-gender singular nouns. - gul — “yellow”. Adjective, common-gender singular indefinite form. - klänning — “dress”. Noun, common gender, singular indefinite. - Hon — “she”. Personal pronoun, subject form. - kramar — “hugs” / “is hugging”. Present tense of the verb krama (infinitive). - en — “a” / “an”. Indefinite article for common-gender singular nouns. - stor — “big” / “large”. Adjective, common-gender singular indefinite form. - hund — “dog”. Noun, common gender, singular indefinite. Grammar explanation Swedish word order is usually subject–verb–object or subject–verb–complement. Here: Bilden visar... (“The picture shows...”) and Hon kramar... (“She hugs...”). Swedish nouns have gender: en or ett. All the nouns in this sentence are en-words: en bild, en flicka, en klänning, en hund. The definite form is usually made by adding -en to an en-word: bild → bilden (“the picture”). Swedish present tense covers both simple present and present continuous. So visar can mean “shows” or “is showing”, and kramar can mean “hugs” or “is hugging”. Adjectives in indefinite singular common gender use the base form: en ung flicka, en gul klänning, en stor hund. They do not add -t or -a here. i en gul klänning literally means “in a yellow dress”. In English, it is more natural to say “wearing a yellow dress”. General grammar tip and related words Learn each Swedish noun with its article and definite form. For common-gender nouns, that often means en ... and ...-en. Adjective agreement also matters: en stor hund (“a big dog”), ett stort hus (“a big house”), stora hundar (“big dogs”). Related forms and words not yet explained: - bild — en bild, bilden, bilder, bilderna - visa — visar, visade, visat - flicka — en flicka, flickan, flickor, flickorna - klänning — en klänning, klänningen, klänningar, klänningarna - hund — en hund, hunden, hundar, hundarna - ung — ungt, unga, yngre, yngst - gul — gult, gula - stor — stort, stora, större, störst - krama — kramar, kramade, kramat; en kram = “a hug” - Hon — henne = “her” as object; hennes = “her” as possessive |
