armarnas

Armarnas is a Swedish grammatical form that marks the genitive plural of the definite plural armarna, meaning arms. It is used to indicate possession by multiple arms, or by a body referred to as arms. The form is not a separate word with its own lexical meaning; it functions as a suffixal marker in noun phrases.

Formation: Armarna is the definite plural of arm. To express genitive plural, Swedish adds the suffix -s to armarna, yielding armarnas. This follows the general pattern in Swedish where the definite plural receives the possessive -s to form the genitive.

Usage: Armarnas appears primarily in written Swedish, especially in historical, anatomical, or legal contexts where the possessive sense of arms is needed. In everyday speech, speakers often rephrase to avoid the construction, using alternatives such as the phrase armarnas egenskaper or other restructured forms.

Examples: armarnas skydd (the arms’ protection), armarnas rättigheter (the arms’ rights). These usages illustrate how the form attaches to a definite plural noun to express possession by multiple arms.

See also: Arm (body part); Genitive (linguistics); Swedish grammar.