Let’s go to a café and a shop!

Let’s go to a café and a shop this lesson! And when we are there, let’s take a tour among the uncountable nouns, too. OK? Are you ready?

I am sure you know a lot about nouns, the words that denote things. So we will not practise the basics, but here comes a very short summary:

en flicka = a girl                                     ett bord = a table
flickan = the girl                                    bordet = the table
flickor = girls (5 flickor = 5 girls)         bord = tables (5 bord = 5 tables)
flickorna = the girls                              borden = the tables

And now a few words about a group of nouns that do not belong to the summary above: the uncountable nouns.
Just like in English, we can count a lot of things.
For example:
en tårta = one cake; en muffin = one muffin,
två semlor = 2 semlas (a Swedish pastry, we eat it in February),
3 mackor = 3 sandwiches;
4 bananer = 4 bananas;
5 tomater = 5 tomatoes.

We call these countable nouns. But there are things we cannot count.
For example: kaffe = coffee; socker = sugar; bröd = bread; mjölk = milk, luft = air. We call these uncountable nouns and they are names of substances. They do not have an indefinite article, “en” or “ett”, nor do they have a plural form (many airs), but they have a singular definite form: mjölk = milk, mjölken = the milk.

For English speakers it is not strange at all:
Jag äter inte socker. = I don’t eat sugar.
Jag tycker inte om vitt bröd. = I don’t like white bread.
Luften är frisk här inne. = The air is fresh in here.
Finns det mat på det där kaféet? = Do they serve food at that café?

So as you can see, the structure and build-up of these phrases are very similar to the way we say them in English. It is the same with indicating that we are talking about a larger amount. As they do not have a plural form, we use the word “mycket” to show that we are talking about “much” of something:
Kan jag få mitt kaffe med mycket mjölk utan socker, tack? = Could I please have my coffee with a lot of milk and without sugar?