"Brandmännen har på sig röda kläder."

Translation: The firemen are wearing red clothes.

[Eva271129]

Why I can't translate brandmännen as firefighters? Duolingo want me to write firemen! Is there an other meaning between firemen and firefighters?

[Mariusz898379]

I think both are correct.

Song by Swedish music band Sabaton. The topic is the word's most successful military unit - Polish Winged Hussars as acknowledgment to Polish firefighters in Sweden a week ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTaVz0ufPE

[devalanteriel]

"firefighters" is actually accepted, though I last edited this sentence a few weeks ago, so it's possible I added it then - can't remember. :)

[Dagmar_Frerking]

So why is 'The firefighters wear red clothes' not accepted. Is 'har på sig' only right now, not in general?

[devalanteriel]

That's also an accepted sentence. However, I see you submitted an error report for "firefighters wear red clothes" - so it looks like you forgot the "the".

[NatalieBoa3]

Does brandmännen refer exclusively to males?

[devalanteriel]

No, we use it for both genders and specify kvinnlig brandman if needed. Another common profession which uses the same gendering for everybody is sjuksköterska. For the most part, though, professions are luckily not inherently gendered.

[rnlddmrrs]

Do professions often have irregular plural forms?

[devalanteriel]

Not really per se, but since man is irregular and some professions end in -man, it follows naturally that these are irregular as well.

[ex0mo]

Do they really wear red clothes in Sweden?

[devalanteriel]

Their regular uniforms are typically grey and yellow, though there are red ones for specific jobs, I think.

[Nahhhhdia]

So there's no gender neutral way to say firefighter in Swedish? Is this the same for postal workers and other jobs? I see they use police officer instead of policeman or policewoman.

[devalanteriel]

There's brandsoldat ("fire soldier") which is gender neutral. Almost all jobs are gender neutral in Swedish - this and sjuksköterska are two of the most obvious exceptions.

[alandarby21]

The firefighters was not accepted as correct

[devalanteriel]

Do you remember exactly what you entered? We accept "firefighters" for all sentence variations here.

[alandarby21]

I cannot remember what i entered but thanks for the response. :) i know this sentence well enough now after 9 months though. i'm getting close to finishing my Swedish tree. Its exciting.