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It’s actually öde in the indefinite, and the reason is simply one of those cases where Swedish prefers the definite form whereas English doesn’t.
Okay, thank you! Do you know of an example where it is the other way around, where English uses it and not swedish?
I can only think of in certain constructions that are created with the definite article in English, but not in Swedish like: ’He is the father of two children’ which in Swedish would be han är far till två barn and also in infinitive constructions like ’you don’t have the guts to do it’ (du har inte mod till att göra det).
Also certain words like nästa and fel are followed by the indefinite in Swedish but often not in English: the wrong way (fel väg), the next day (nästa dag).
Out of the blue, I can think of listen to the radio where Swedish prefers lyssna på radio. (If you used definite radion, it would refer to a specific radio.)
