"Do they not have a shelf?"

Translation: Har de ingen hylla?

[Rycecube]

So one can never say "har de ingen en hylla"? If 'en' is used, then it has to be 'inte' instead of 'ingen'?

[Arnauti]

Right. With ingen/inget it's always the indefinite without an article, and in plural inga the indefinite plural. No exceptions to this.

[ZorbaTHut]

Okay, I'm missing something with these words - what's the difference between "inte"and "ingen"? I swear I use the wrong one more often than the right one.

[Zmrzlina]

Inte negates a verb.

Ingen/inget/inga negates a noun.

[shaneelah]

So is this a grammatical difference between Swedish and English? Like, is the difference that in English you negate the "have" and in Swedish you negate the "hylla"?

[Zmrzlina]

In this particular sentence, yes. But both languages can negate either, of course.

[shaneelah]

Ahh right, tack så mycket!

[ninady1980]

In the multiple choice version of the question, the correct answer actually translates to 'Do they have no shelf?' - if we're being pernickety... ('ingen' rather than 'har inte en')

[Will_Baker1998]

Could you also say "Har de inte en hylla?"

[luchuc]

According to Arnauti above, yes if you use 'inte en' instead of 'ingen'.