ABSTRACT
In four main cases an adjective is used alone in the noun phrase.
In the plural, the use is much as in English, with the word människor ‘people’ being assumed:
Robin Hood stal från de rika och gav till de fattiga .
Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
Det är de sjuka som behöver läkare, inte de friska . [Lukas 5:31]
It is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy. [Luke 5:31]
Other frequent examples include: de unga ‘the young’; de gamla ‘the old’; de döda ‘the dead’; de arbetslösa ‘the unemployed’; de konservativa ‘the conservatives’.
Some Swedish present and past participles also function as adjectival nouns: de röstande ‘the voters’; de nygifta ‘the newly-weds’.
Unlike English, however, Swedish also uses the adjectival noun in the singular definite. Here its gender and ending prove significant.
The non-neuter adjectival noun denotes a person, and the ending (–e or –a) denotes male or female respectively:
The neuter form refers to an unspecified amount or quantity of a property or a characteristic, or to a neuter noun that is omitted but understood:
Det bästa med Sverige är landsbygden.
The best thing about Sweden is the countryside.
Det enda vi kan göra är att be.
The only thing we can do is to pray.30
Swedish also has indefinite adjectival nouns, some of which are derived from present and past participles. Note that present participles are indeclinable:
en anhörig ‘a relative’; en blind ‘a blind person’; en död ‘a dead person’; en kristen ‘a Christian’; en okänd ‘an unknown person, a stranger’; de närvarande ‘those present’.
If the noun is obvious from the context, it need not be repeated:
Vill du köpa det stora skåpet eller det lilla (skåpet)?
Do you want to buy the big cupboard or the small one?
Begagnade bilar är billigare än nya (bilar).
Used cars are cheaper than new ones.
–e form is masculine: den sjuke (killen) the sick boy –a form is feminine: den sjuka (tjejen) the sick girl