"It is not the same color."

Translation: Det är inte samma färg.

[aline-de-boer]

When there's an adjective we need another 'the' right?

[Zmrzlina]

Generally, yes, BUT samma is an exception. When samma is describing something, it has to be indefinite.

[lazar.ljubenovic]

This gives me headaches and I love them.

[Vedun]

Why samma and not samm or sam? Is färg plurale tantum?

[Zmrzlina]

No, samma is the form used in all situations. It does not change.

[Lundgren8]

Except for the optional samme in the masculine. (Han är samme man som förut.)

[Zmrzlina]

Yes, I thought I'd leave that out for the occasion to explain just samma. :)

[Vedun]

tack

[storio]

The English translation was "It is not THE same word". Could someone please explain to me why "samma färgen" is wrong? Tack! :)

[Zmrzlina]

When the adjective samma is describing something, it's always indefinite.

[ezupo1]

In this course I cannot hear the sound of the letter G in words like färg or älg . For example, in Forvo the word älg sounds to me like ɛlːʒ while in duolingo I listen something like ɛlɪ. Is this a thing of my bad ear or can it be pronounced in both ways?

[jstnc]

where is the "the" in this sentence?

[Zmrzlina]

English wants the "the" with the adjective "same", while Swedish is the other way around and cannot use definite nouns and the adjective "samma" together.

[Hjtunfgb]

In this case, can't I use den instead? It counted as a typo here...

[FishFinger]

"It is not the same color" can be interpreted as "It is not OF the same color". Ambiguous.

[creativemetaphor]

Not sure what your second sentence would even be used for. How is the one presented ambiguous?

[FishFinger]

"Is cyan the same as aquamarine?"

"No, it's not the same color" ["it" refers to the color itself]

vs.

"Is your new car red, like your old one?"

"No, it's not the same color" ["it" refers to the car]

Do you see the difference?

[creativemetaphor]

I see a technical difference but I see zero ambiguity in either case by "is [it] - whatever 'it' is - the same color?" I just don't see the answer as being misinterpretable.

[OlliPllnen]

Why not samma färget?

[Arnauti]

a) färg is an 'en' word so 'färget' is not a word, the definite form is färgen
b) samma is a special adjective. It's always used like this: no front article, and the noun is indefinite.

Compare:
A normal adjective works like this: you can say en röd bok or den röda boken 'a red book' or 'the red book'
With samma, you only have one option: samma bok 'the same book'. In English, 'same' is also an exception in that you don't really say 'a same book', only 'the same book'.

This is because samma has a meaning that makes the expression definite in itself.

[Jan486659]

And in German you have both: Ein gleiches rotes Buch (one of many of the same kind) and Das gleiche rote Buch, exactly the same as last time...