Grammar Lesson 9:

Swedish nouns in plural

Some nouns are the same in singular and plural, like:

1 hus, 2 hus (1 house, 2 houses)
1 hem, 2 hem (1 home, 2 homes)

Others are very different, like:

1 fot, 2 fötter (1 foot, 2 feet)
1 tand, 2 tänder (1 tooth, 2 teeth)

More generally these rules are used:

For words where ”en” is used in infinite form:

En-words ending with an unaccentuated –a ends with – or in plural (En flicka – Två flickor = One girl, two girls)

En-words ending with an unaccentuated –e ends with –ar in plural (En pojke – Två pojkar = One boy, two boys)

En-words ending with an accentuated last vowel (always more than one vowel) ends with –er in plural (En gardin – Två gardiner (One curtain, two curtains)

Some words end with a consonant, and in plural they will end with –ar or –er (En bil, två bilar = One car, two cars. En bild, två bilder = One image, two images)

For words where ”ett” is used in infinite form:

Ett-words ending with a vowel ends with –n in plural (Ett ställe, två ställen = One place, two places)

Ett-words ending with a consonant ends with no suffix at all in plural (Ett liv, två liv = One life, two lives)




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