Ätbar

Ätbar is a Swedish adjective meaning edible or suitable to be eaten. It describes foods, plants, fungi, or other substances that can be consumed without harm. The term is common in everyday language, cooking, foraging guides, and food labeling used in a descriptive sense. Its opposite is not ätbar, with danger typically described using terms like giftig (poisonous).

Etymology: Ätbar is formed from the verb äta (to eat) plus the suffix -bar, meaning "able to be." The construction is a standard Swedish parallel to the English -able and other Germanic cognates. The word is written with the umlaut ä.

Usage: Ätbar is used to indicate that something is safe to eat. Examples: "Björnbär är ätbart." "Det här äpplet är ätbart." In some contexts, especially foraging or food labeling, it signals suitability for human consumption rather than taste.

Inflection: The adjective inflects for number and gender. Common gender singular form is ätbar, neuter singular is ätbart, and plural is ätbara. In predicative construction after a linking verb, forms align with the subject: "Det är ätbart." "Dessa bär är ätbara."

See also: ätlig (another Swedish term related to edibility), giftig (poisonous).