mången
Swedish edit
Etymology edit
From Old Swedish manger, margher, marghin, from Old Norse mangr, margr, from Proto-Germanic *managaz.
Pronoun edit
mången c, månget n, mångt n, många pl
- (singular only, dated, poetic) many a
- 1848, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, “Fänrik Stål”, in Fänrik Ståls sägner, volume I, page 5:
- […] Mig vinkar från förflutna år / så mången vänlig stjärna. […]
- […] To me waves from years past / so many a kind star. […]
- (plural only) many, many people
- Många vill ha senap på korven.
- Many want mustard on their hot dog.
Usage notes edit
- This pronoun is also used as an adjective and noun.
- The singular of this pronoun takes the meaning "many a". It's rarely used in casual speech, except when trying to sound old-timey, and so is dated.
- Swedish dictionaries SAOB and SAOL do not connect this pronoun mången, månget, många (“many”) to the adjectives fler (“more”) and flest (“most”), even though most (non-linguist) native speakers of Swedish consider them as forms of the same adjective.