It’s grammar time today, because we can’t have just fun and games all the time. I want you to learn something really useful here, even if only occasionally. :-)

When talking about “jobbig” I briefly mentioned the rules regarding Swedish adjectives. That when an adjective describes an “ett” noun, it gets a “-t” ending. And when it describes a plural noun, then the ending of that adjective gets an “-a”.

For example:

  • grön = green, when used with “en” nouns, indefinite
  • grönt = green, when used with “ett” nouns, indefinite
  • gröna = green when used with plural nouns.

Seems simple enough. “But wait!” you may say. “It’s not that simple!”
And you are right. Unfortunately.

There are bunches and bunches of “irregular” adjectives, which do what they please. In some forms they change, or they don’t, or they change in a whole different way altogether.

Here are some examples:

  • liten = small, with “en” words, indefinite
  • litet = small, with “ett” words, indefinite

but get this:

  • små = small, with plural words

Now, how’s that for funky, huh?

  • kort = short, with “en” words, indefinite
  • kort = short, with “ett” words, indefinite

and finally:

  • korta = short, with plural nouns

Adjectives “lätt” and “trött” behave in the same way:

  • lätt/ lätt/ lätta = easy, light

and

  • trött/ trött/ trötta = tired

Among the most common nouns used every day, there is one serious oddity, and that is “bra” (good). Bra always stays the same, no matter the noun, like this:

  • en bra film = a good film
  • ett bra job = a good job
  • bra bocker = good books

Then there are some adjectives that change like they’re supposed to, however they do it in a slightly offbeat way. Take a look:

  • gammal = old (en nouns, indefinite)
  • gammalt = old (ett nouns, indefinite)

but watch this:

  • gamla = old (plural nouns)

Or this one:

  • vacker = beautiful (en nouns, indefinite)
  • vackert = beautiful (ett nouns, indefinite)

but something happens here:

  • vackra = beautiful (plural)

To make it even more confusing, that “plural” adjective form is also used for definite nouns, both “en” and “ett”. But we’ll discuss it in another post.