gråa

Gråa is the plural attributive form of the Swedish adjective grå, meaning gray. It is used to describe nouns in plural. The base forms for singular are grå (en grå bil, a gray car) and grått (ett grått hus, a gray house). In plural, you typically use gråa before plural nouns, as in gråa bilar (gray cars) or gråa dagar (gray days). In definite plural constructions, the adjective still takes the gråa form: de gråa husen (the gray houses).

Etymology and cognates: grå derives from Old Norse grárr, with related forms in other Scandinavian languages, such as Danish grå and Norwegian grå, and is cognate with the English word gray. The color term has a long history in Germanic languages and remains a common descriptor in modern Swedish.

Usage and nuance: gråa describes a range of gray hues, from light to dark. In Swedish, adjectives can be modified by qualifiers to express shade, such as ljust grå (light gray) or mörkgrå (dark gray). The term is neutral and widely used in everyday language, literature, design, and media to describe objects, weather, fashion, and natural phenomena where gray tones are present.

See also: grå (color), grått, svensk grammatikk (Swedish grammar) for plural and definite adjective inflection patterns, and other color terms used in Swedish.