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- "Pojken dricker den."
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If, for example, I was talking about a boy drinking milk but I accidentally said "Pojken dricker det" instead of "den", would it seem like a very silly mistake to a native speaker, or could I get away with it? Little things like this make me anxious about speaking.
1485
Native speakers make mistakes of this type sometimes, just from 'bad planning', so don't worry too much about it!
If we would knew that the boy drinks coffee, would it be: pojken dricker det.?
I thought it would be because "kaffe" is an ett-word, not because "kaffet" ("the coffee") ends in et, though I suppose they're the same reason.
Because "kaffe" is an ett-word the definite form of "kaffe" becomes "kaffet". If "kaffe" would be an en-word, the definite form would be "kaffen". Hope that makes sense.
Ah, so the article basically gets moved to the end to form the definite form?
Yes, pretty much. Though if you have an adjective, you still need a definite article in front - you'll encounter that later.
Kaffe, when used in a sense of "cup of coffee" can also have utrum gender (en kopp kaffe = en kaffe). In that case "Pojken dricker den" would be correct, I believe.
But "den" would apply only to the cup and not the coffee itself; so if you are talking about the coffee specifically, you'd have to use "det."
So this sentence could be " the boy is drinking something" den being there for the unspecified liquid?
If it refers back to a noun which is a ”en-word”, then you’d use ”den”, e.g. ”mjölken” (the milk).
So we don't know what en- word 'den' refers to just that it must be an en-word.
what if i dunno what the boy is drinking, and i just wanna say "the boy is drinking it." what would i have to use det or den?
so, for example, when I a referring to a boy drinking juice, then it would be "Pojken dricker den" but if i was reffering to him drinking water it would be "Pojken dricker vattnet"?
No, you use den for singular en-words, det for singular ett-words, and dem for plurals.
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so, I'm confused then. In this sentence where we don't know if what he is drinking is a -en or -ett word both den or det should be correct
When translating from English into Swedish, we allow both here, since it's ambiguous.
This is the thread for "type what you hear" and "translate into English", though.
Is "den" also a Definite article? It also says "the", "it" and "the one". Or "den" actually contains the meaning of "the"? because,, den = it (plural) You can use the plurals only you already know that.
- 1485
Yes, den is both the pronoun 'it' and a definite article.
den or det as pronouns are used to talk about things like Jag ser den/det 'I see it'
den or det as articles are used together with adjective + noun: den lilla pojken 'the small boy' det lilla glaset 'the small glass'
Would it be incorrect, then, to say lilla pojken if i'm meaning to to say 'the small boy'?
- 1485
Both mean 'it' but they're used depending on the gender of the noun.
Han dricker kaffet = Han dricker det 'He drinks the coffee = He drinks it'
Han dricker juicen = Han dricker den 'He drinks the juice = He drinks it'
So den is used to adress en words and is at the same time the accusative case of the pronoun det?
No, it's used here since it refers to an (unmentioned) en-word, but it could just as well have said pojken dricker det.
Sounds hards to fine the name of a drinkable with the -en gender. This is piquing my curiosity.
They both mean the same thing as the English "It", but are used for different genders of nouns. In Swedish, we have "en" and "ett" words. You use "den" for "en" words and "det" for "ett" words.
Wait a minute. What if it was in the subjective form? Would it matter then if it's an ett word or and en word ?
No. Are you sure you're using the right term? Neither English nor Swedish has a subjective form for other things than pronouns.
Until now all drinks i have seen passing (water, milk, tea and coffee) are ett-words. Are there drinks that are en-words?
That's just coincidence - in fact, mjölk is actually an en-word.
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In a sentence like this with no antecedent noun identifying what "it" is, how do you know it's "den" and "det"?
Without context, it could be either - so both are allowed translations.
I sneezed well talking about this and my recording stopped and i got it wrong RIP. Press F to pay repect
I'm having trouble with "ett" and "en" words... Aren't we all? When "it" is the subject of a sentence, is it always "det"? Or is it also sometimes "den"?
Those are two very common questions, so I put them in a post for common questions a while ago: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/26420394
That's for constructions such as "it is" or "there is", but not when you're explicitly referring to something like here. It doesn't really matter whether you know about what you're talking - what's important is whether the grammar does. :)
Is Pojken dricker det correct? If not could anyone explain why. Thanks
I normally use 'det' for 'it', but this prefers 'den'. Now I realize I have no idea when to use which. For most of this course so far, we've used 'det' for 'it'.
It depends on the gender of the noun. So in this case, either is fine since we don't know what "it" refers to.
I am having a difficult time discriminating between den and dem. In fact it almost seems that I am always hearing the opposite (den when it's dem and dem when it's den). What am I missing? Here I was congratulating myself on my improvement in my listening skill and then went back to this very early exercise and feel like I am back to square one. Is there any help.
The best advice is probably to skip the consonant if it's giving you trouble, since dem is actually pronounced with an o sound: dom.
In this case, Swedish den and dom sound quite close to English "den" and "dom", so I'd suggest using them as rough equivalents.
