Language/Swedish/Grammar/When-use-Ett-or-En
Hej everyone 😀!
In today's lesson you will learn WHEN TO USE ETT & EN in Swedish.
In English, both articles "Ett" and "En" translate to "a" but when to use ett or en? Is there a grammatical rule to use?
NOUN FORMS
DEFINITE FORM
When we want a noun to be in definite form we add a suffix to the noun; -en, -n or -et.
For example:
- Ett bord = Bordet
- En hund = Hunden
- Ett äpple = Äpplet
- En skola = Skolan
Here we just add -n since the word already ends with a vowel.
As you might have noticed, you can know which suffix to use by looking at the indefinite article.
- If it's an "En-word", the suffix is -en or -n.
- If it's an "Ett-word", the suffix is -et.
INDEFINITE FORM
In Swedish, we have two words to choose when we want to write about nouns in an indefinite form: En or Ett.
Examples:
- Ett bord = A table
- En hund = A dog
- Ett äpple = An apple
- En skola = A school
IS THERE A GRAMMATICAL RULE?
Native English speakers often make the following mistake:
- En (Swedish article) = An (English article)
- Ett (Swedish article) = A (English article)
⚠ This rule is wrong!
→ There is no grammatical rule to know when to use En or Ett, you just simply have to learn them.
GOOD NEWS: THERE ARE SOME GUIDELINES
Yes! there are some guidelines that can help you to predict the gender:
- Most of the human beings and animals are en nouns. (Exceptions: ett barn, ett djur, ett bi, ett lejon).
- Days, months, seasons are en nouns (Exception: ett dygn).
- Most of the nouns that end in -ad, -are, -dom, -else, -het, -ing, -ning, -ion, -ism, -lek, -nad, -or are en nouns.
- Most of the nouns that end in -ande, -ende, -ek, -em, -iv, -um are ett nouns. Names of continents, countries, provinces, towns are ett nouns
EXAMPLES (in several languages)
ENGLISH | SWEDISH | PRONUNCIATION IN
ENGLISH |
FRENCH | PORTUGUESE |
---|---|---|---|---|
A table | Ett bord | eht bohr | Une table | Uma mesa |
A dog | En hund | ehn hoon | Un chien | Um cachorro |
An apple | Ett äpple | eht eh pleh | Une pomme | Uma maçã |
A school | En skola | ehn skoo lah | Une école | Uma escola |
The table | Bordet | bohr deht | La table | A mesa |
The dog | Hunden | hoon dehn | Le chien | O cachorro |
The apple | Äpplet | eh pleht | La pomme | A maçã |
The school | Skolan | skoh lahn | L'école | A escola |
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