"He has a very big dog."
Translation:Han har en jättestor hund.
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3023
Yes, you can, in speech. It is very common, and I can't think of any example (right now) where it does not work. (But it's a 'prefix', since it begins the compoundword, not a suffix that ends it). But in written language we would probably find it a bit too colloquial ....
I assume you got this as a multiple choice question and the correct answer you saw was not Han har en jättestor hund. That's because the options with mycket stor or väldigt stor are just as good translations of very big, so either one of them, two of them or even all three could be shown in a multiple choice question.
My secondary school taught a couple of weeks of Scots, I remember the teacher saying that there are strong Germanic roots to a lot of the language, as well as some Gaelic. Thank you for reminding me of that - I've been trying to pin some Swedish words to similar ones in English to help me learn them, I forgot that I could do the same with Scots :)
Absolutely. All of Han har en mycket stor hund, Han har en väldigt stor hund, and Han har en jättestor hund are accepted answers and if you get them in a multiple choice here, you may even have to choose all three of them.
mycket stor is the most formal of the three versions, jättestor is the most colloquial, and väldigt stor is the most neutral way of putting it.
542
Why is it not " Han har en jättestora hund"? I read this as a possessive statement and needing the -a suffix. Would it only apply if the statement was "He has THE very big dog"?
3023
Yes, big as a giant = huge. But since it is used to frequently, the feeling of the word has 'shrunk'.