"It takes one or two days."

Translation: Det tar en eller två dagar.

[creativemetaphor]

Why can't I use 'ett' instead of 'en' for one here?

[Nebelung1]

because it is "en dag" not "ett dag". :)

[creativemetaphor]

Bah! Okay, I though that when specifically using it as the number one rather than as 'a' it was supposed to be ett.

Thank you

[Nebelung1]

Think of it like a "silent" dag in between, like this:
Det tar en (dag) eller två dagar.

But instead of repeating "dag" twice, you only have to say it once (same in English, it would be cumbersome to say "It takes one day or two days").

[Sortehund]

Tack, really good explanation

[ranld]

Thanks for the clarification, Nebelung1.

[ranld]

Yeah, I had thought the same

[patricia8284]

I thought the same

[Seraph259]

Can dygn not be used here?

[devalanteriel]

It's not technically wrong, but we don't often use it like that. If something takes more than one day, it's sort of implied that it'll take the night as well, so unless we have a specific reason to point out that it's the full 24-hour dygn, we mostly just use dagar.

[ThomasRo2]

Well, I guess it is a "vanesak" actually. What you say is absolutely right when talking about the past (e.g. "Sedan flera dagar") but in my experience both versions are used when talking about the future ("Det kan ta flera dygn"), so I vote for accepting the dygn-version.

[patricia8284]

Why is not possible: Det tar ett eller två dagar?

[gerrygregg]

See above ^^^

[Hillaki]

Couldn't it also be "det tar en dag eller två"

[Harsan9]

Why is "Det tar man eller två dagar" wrong?

[Sanna440]

"Man" can mean "one" in the sense of "One shouldn't eat rocks." ("Man bör inte äta stenar.") but not in the sense of 1. "Man" in that sense is related to the word "människa" ("human").

[Sanna440]

The TTS-voice (at least the one I get on my Android device) pronounces "tar" too much like "dar" here.