"He eats his apple."
Translation:Han äter sitt äpple.
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Is there some way to know, other than rote memorization, if a noun is an ett or an en word by the word itself?
This post has some great tendencies: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/6329293
In addition, almost all living things are en-words. But other than that, I'm afraid you'll have to learn each by heart.
Sitt vs sin depend on the word, e.g. ett äpple but en tidning. So if you want to say his/her apple or newspaper: sitt äpple but sin newspaper. as far as i know we need to learn/know whether we deal with a ett or en word. Do correct me if i am wrong in explaining.
Hans vs sitt example: 1. Patrik kysser sin fru. 2. Patrik kysser hans fru. In English both sentences translates to “Patrik is kissing his wife”. In Swedish however, you make a distinction between “his own wife” = sin, and his as in someoneelse’s wife. - source: http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/theswedishteacher/2010/03/25/sin-sitt-sina/
Hans is someone else's apple sitt is yours example:
Mannen äter hans äpple: The man eats his (his friends) apple
Mannen äter sitt äpple: The man eats his (his own) apple
Duolingo doesnt do a very good job at explaining what "his" they mean though, bit frustrating
If one of them said hon, that would be incorrect - since it's "he" in the sentence, not "she". If both did, there's something wrong. And if both said han, then both should be accepted - I checked, and they have both been for over four years.
Oh, sorry, my bad. Still confusing hon and han. Thank you for your answer c:
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en/ett, sin/sitt : the more you read and hear the language the easier it getr to just feel which one to use. In German and French and so on, it is the same -- or worre I would say -- and I never learned any rules (in that area, there are so many much more ''meaningful'' ones). just my two cents