Definite Plurals and Possession

Once you know a noun's plural, Swedish can also say "the cars", "the houses", and "Anna's car."

If plural formation is not yet familiar, review Plurals first.

How do you mark that plural things are specific?

Start from the plural you learned in Plurals; the definite ending goes on top of it:

Without the definite ending, bilar refers to some unspecified cars. Adding -na makes them specific, identifiable cars.

Swedish possession often uses a surface -s:

This is a spelling layer. It does not mean every phrase has the same word order as English, but the single-token form normally ends in s.

Do not add another visible s after a name or noun that already ends in an s-like spelling.

Ordinary Swedish normally does not use the English-style apostrophe in these forms. An apostrophe may appear exceptionally to prevent ambiguity, but the clearer everyday alternative is often to rephrase: