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- "Do you have strings?"
"Do you have strings?"
Translation:Har ni snören?
32 Comments
1302
shouldn't most ett- words remain the same in plural form, and only take an "n" at the end when it is definitive plural? Why is it "snören" instead of "snöre" here?
There is. According to my notes, this is the so-called "fourth declension" in Swedish: ett-words ending in a vowel. The indefinite plural form adds an "-n" (snören), while the definite plural form adds "-na" (snörena). They occur much less frequently in the lessons than ett-words ending in consonants (the "fifth declension"), which are unchanged in indefinite plural, but add "-en" in definite plural form. As a result, I still forget about this distinction :-)
I'm quite surprised too, that they're talking bout strings all the time. But maybe Duolingo want to stress that Swedish are just a mighty nation of melodic death metal and they just break their strings quite often so they ask this kind of questions instead of "have you seen my wallet/keyes/cell/glasses"?
As suggested i checked all the above discussion and there is no clear explanation of why we should choose the definite form over the indefinite one. There are some useful hints, though.
Snöre ---> indefinite singular Snören--> INDEFINITE plural Snöret --> definite singular Snörena-> definite plural
As suggested below by Natalie it's like the old good "äpple". This is how it works for every -ett word ending with a vowel (exceptions apply)
So "Har ni snören?" is actually built up with the indefinite form, and this should answer your question.
634
So 'snöre' is twine string, and 'sträng' is a string on an instrument. What is a string in physics (string theory)?
601
I assume the word "snore" (but with the two dots above the o), and the english word "snare" are related etymologically?
Maybe it is dumb question, but how many people in Sweden use «du» like «ni» and like «du»? And isn't it roughly if I say «du» when I talk with a stranger? (p.s. sorry for my English, I'm just from Russia)