"It is a moose."
Translation:Det är en älg.
November 19, 2014
4 Comments
OrangeVarg
877
So you could say that "det" in this case is more general and "den" would be a specific moose?
January 2, 2015
I thought that for an en- noun, the pronoun should be Den. Why is Det used here?
November 19, 2014
If we use "den" here, we are being very specific that that very moose right there, is a moose. Using "det" is just expressing that there's a moose.
For example:
- Det är en älg i skogen. (There's a moose in the forest.)
- Den är en älg. (That one is a moose.)
This must feel very complicated to a non-native speaker. I think you will get a lot better feel for the differences between these two with practice. This one of those weird things that a native speaker doesn't even think about.
November 19, 2014
