"The boat is in the port of Gothenburg."

Translation: Båten ligger i Göteborgs hamn.

[trottoar]

Why isn't it "Göteborgs hamnen"?

[Arnauti]

After a word in genitive, we can't have the determinate form. It's the same in English, really. You don't say 'the man's the book' either.

[trottoar]

I didn't realize it, I'm not a native speaker :). Tack!

[mattheworb]

I put that as well because of the rule I thought I remembered right: that possessives become definite. Is this different because it is a genitive, or is it because it is the possession of a non-person?

[devalanteriel]

The rule is the opposite - possessed things are inherently grammatically indefinite.

[Coreopsis2943]

Does it HAVE to be "Göteborgs hamn"? Is there no room for variation? You really can´t say "hamnen av Götenborg" or something like that?

[Lundgren8]

No, Swedish generally doesn’t use that of-construction.

[Coreopsis2943]

Okay. Fair enough.

[merle_noir]

You can say "hamnen i Göteborg" but that is not really the same meaning ("the port in Gothenburg").

[ckun]

Isnt "finns vid" acceptable instead of "ligger i"?

[Zmrzlina]

No. It sounds unnatural.

[m.jamshidee222]

why we cant båten är i......

[devalanteriel]

We do allow Båten är i Göteborgs hamn.

[MC6853]

This is why Swedish is sometimes tricky... If someone said in English "the boat is lying in the port" I'd likely think it had sunk to the bottom...

[MaranataMan]

Not trying to argue here (every language has its quirks), but boats should definitely stå... Unless they're all capsizing.

[Berit206036]

Why isn't the English sentence: The boat is in Gothenburg's harbor