"I have an orange."

Translation: Jag har en apelsin.

[RLRTB]

...and I'm not afraid to use it

[Mewzyk]

You guys!! How can I know if I'm going to use "ett" or "en"!! :o

[UnderCanada]

Swedish has gendered nouns: common gender and neuter. Common uses "en," neuter uses "ett." If you look at the browser version, it has a very nice grammar section under the Basics lessons that discusses gender in Swedish.

[Lingouages]

Is it similar to "ja"?

[izybrown2468]

Yes

[SallyRedfern]

why do we need en here when my previous "han är en kock" was corrected to "han är kock"?

[devalanteriel]

Swedish doesn't use the indefinite article for people being things like professions. It's required in almost all other contexts where English has it.

[kuronekozombie]

jag is pronounced yo?

[Zmrzlina]

No. It is not an O-sound, but a long A-sound a little different to the one many are familiar with. It's the same sound you'd find in English words like "bar" and "far".

[SteffiMann1]

"bar/far" in British English or American English?

[gen.exe]

That "i" really hard to pronounce for non-swedish people i think.

[VarHyid]

In German there are two similar options ("Orange" and "Apfelsine") so I thought it's the same in Sweden. I checked this in Google Translate and it lists "orange" as the first translation and "apelsin" as the second.

Is that true? Are Swedes never saying "orange" when talking about the fruit or at least is "apelsin" so much more common that it justifies marking "orange" as incorrect?

[devalanteriel]

orange in Swedish is only the colour orange. We never call the fruit orange... except, of course, to describe its colour. :)

[VarHyid]

I see. Thanks for clarifying :)