"Mina barn är små."

Translation: My children are small.

[GregDison]

Why could it not be "my child is small"?

[So1ovei]

"Mina" is only used on plural subjects. That's how you know the sentence is talking about more than one child.

e.g. min katt = my cat; mina katter = my cats

[GregDison]

THANK YOU OH MY GOD. I've been trying figure stuff like that out but its not covered in the lessons so I'm just sitting here guessing haha

[So1ovei]

I believe there's a handy chart of singular/plural pronouns in the notes here:
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/sv/Possessives

[HelenCarlsson]

And with only one child, it would be "mitt barn är litet"

[canislvpvsalbvs]

Why couldn't it be "mitt barn är små" though?

[HelenCarlsson]

It's irregular :).

[canislvpvsalbvs]

Oh, you're right. So små is only used for plural?

[HelenCarlsson]

Exactly!

[DerpLeTroll]

What are the other forms for små?

[HelenCarlsson]

ett litet hus - det lilla huset
en liten hund - den lilla hunden
två små barn - de små barnen

[awrculus]

nicely Explained thanx I was confused!!

[Will709432]

Bit confused about små. If it's the plural form, why lilla here?

[VilyusB.]

"Små" seems to be for plural forms and "lilla" for singular definite forms: "det lilla barnet" is "the small kid" and "små barn" is "small kids"

[Andeee77]

I heard this as "Mina barnens mal" Ojojoj I need to train my ears!!!

[JordiFaxon]

Why is "barn" plural in this sentence?

[Zmrzlina]

Well, why is hard to answer, it's just what we ask you to translate. Anyways, you can tell from the possessive pronoun "mina" that it's plural.

[JordiFaxon]

So what would the singular pronoun be?

[HelenCarlsson]

In this case, "mitt": Mitt barn är litet.

[JordiFaxon]

what's the other singular pronoun?

[Zmrzlina]

"Min", but that is used for singular en-words.

[nic594974]

In Tinycards "små" is defined as tiny which was not accepted here. As well it would be nice if they said that it was only used for plural subjects to differentiate from "liten".

[sylvie328517]

is there a plural for "barn"?
min barn / mina barn?

[TabithaDally]

When is "små" pronounced with a "sh" sound at the beginning?