Beginner #9 - A black car (Adjectives)

Print lesson
Anders: Åh, titta här. Det är en snygg bil.
Oh, look here, that is a nice looking car.
Markus: Glöm det, den är alldeles för dyr.
Forget it, it is far too expensive.
Anders: Just ja, synd. Men färgen var bra. Jag gillar mörkblåa bilar.
Oh yeah pity, but the colour was good, I like dark blue cars.
Markus: Jag också men svart gillar jag ännu bättre. Det ser så elegant ut.
Me too but I like black even better, it looks so elegant.
Anders: Mina föräldrar har en röd bil. Det är fruktansvärt.
My parents have a red car. It's terrible.
Markus: Haha ja, min brorsa kör en grön volvo. Det är minst lika hemskt. Jag gillar inga bilar med konstiga färger.
Ha yea, my brother drives a green Volvo. It's just as terrible. I don't like cars with weird colours.
Anders: Den här då?
What about this one.
Markus: Åh, både sportig och elegant. Och priset är också bra. Men (hmm), nej, den har redan gått för många mil. Därför är den så billig. Vi tittar vidare.
Oh, both sporty and elegant and the price is good too. But no, it has already gone too many miles. That's why it's so cheap. Let's look further.
Anders: Titta här, en svart Saab 9-3. Den skulle passa dig! Den är redan tio år gammal men har allt som du behöver.
Look here. A black Saab 9-3. It would suit you. It is already 10 years old but has everything you need.
Markus: Jo det stämmer. Jag tar och ringer direkt.
Yes that's right, I will call immediately.
  
alldeles
entirely
  
bil
car
  
billig
low cost, cheap
  
både och
both and
  
elegant
elegant
  
fruktansvärd
awful
  
färg
colour, color
  
glömma
forget
  
grön
green
  
hemsk
terrible
  
konstig
weird
  
köra
drive
  
lika
just as
  
mil
10 km
  
minst
at least
  
mörkblå
dark blue
  
passa
fit
  
pris
price, prize
  
röd
red
  
sportig
sporty
  
stämma
be right
  
synd
too bad
  
vidare
further
  
ännu
yet

Next to an en-word (Utrum) the adjective is used in its basic form, like you would find it in a dictionary, and stays that way:

en stor bil a big car

With ett-words (Neuter) the basic form of the adjective gets a -t at the end:

ett stort hus a big house

In plural both genders look the same:

två stora bilar two big cars
två stora hus two big houses

This construction, when the adjective preceeds the noun, is called the predicative form. However in this lesson we also talked about the attributive construction. The adjective is placed after the noun and there is also a verb in there:

>Bilen är stor. The car is big.
Huset är stort. The house is big.
Bilarna är stora. The cars are big.
Husen är stora. The houses are big.

All regular adjectives are also changed in this manner:

N-word T-word Plural
– (basic form) -t -a
stor stort stora

We do, however, have a lot of irregular adjectives too. To know, how these are declined, we’ve collected a few important rules for you:

Adjectives with one syllable, ending on a long vowel:

ny nytt nya new

Adjectives with one syllable, ending on a long voewl + d:

god gott goda good/delicious

Adjectives ending on a consonant + d:

hård hårt hårda hard

Adjective ending on a vowel + m:

dum dumt dumma dumb

Adjective ending on a consonant + t:

intressant intressant intressanta interesting

Adjectives ending on -nn:

sann sant sanna true

Adjective ending on a vowel + tt:

trött trött trött tired

Unchangable adjectives:

bra bra bra good

Other words in this group are words like extra, fel, kul, gratis and a couple of colours.

Adjective ending on -er, -el, -en drop the -e- in plural:

vacker vackert vackra beautiful
enkel enkelt enkla easy
vuxen vuxet vuxna grown up

here three important adjectives:

liten litet små small
gammal gammalt gamla old
rädd -* rädda afraid
*This form doesn’t exist and is expressed with synonyms, similar words.

And hier a list of the most important colours:

röd rött röda red
blå blått blå(a) blue
grön grönt gröna green
gul gult gula yellow
orange orange orange orange
vit vitt vita white
svart svart svart black
grå grått grå(a) grey
brun brunt bruna brown
lila lila lila purple
rosa rosa rosa pink
ljusblå* ljusblått ljusblå(a) light blue
mörkblå* mörkblått mörkblå(a) dark blue
*With the prefixes ljus- and mörk- all colours can be darkened or lightened.