Hej all! I’m learning Swedish at the moment. What it the difference between ‘en’ and ‘ett’? I always seem to use the wrong one.
Hej all! I’m learning Swedish at the moment. What it the difference between ‘en’ and ‘ett’? I always seem to use the wrong one.
7 comments
Both mean *a/an*, but *en* is for words whose gender is utrum and *ett* is for words whose gender is neutrum. That means that Swedish has two genders, where English doesn’t have any gender at all. It’s recommended to learn words with their articles, it’s more effective than just telling yourself ”kvinna = utrum”.
HOWEVER… utrum is way more common than neutrum, and usually refers to living beings as well as professions. Exceptions exist, for example *ett barn*, which means *a child*.
There’s no rule that says if the noun is a “en”-noun or an “ett”-noun. But you’ll probably be right about 80% of the time if you use “en”. Many foreigners use “en” for everything because they haven’t learnt the difference yet.
Think of it as the English “a” and “an”. They both mean the same thing but they fit with different nouns.
-> r/svenska
Wrong sub, try r/svenska!
Swedish still has two genders (two neutral ones). IIRC we used to do like the Germans and have three (masculine, feminine and neutral) but it changed over the centuries. The noun’s gender determines if you use en or ett, as well as how you create the definite form of the noun. For example it is “en bil” (a car) therefor it is “bilen” (the car). Compare to “ett träd” (a tree), “trädet” (the tree).
As you seem to be dutch. It is sikilar to de/het. Like a house: het huis – huset (ett hus), de vrouw – en kvinna (kvinnan). I find it easy to think about these examples to determine if I should use ett/en and practice helps in remembering.
Often when it would be “ett” it would also be “het” in dutch (though a slightly different context as you would use that for a specific subject.
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Vatten.