hundars

Hundars is the genitive plural form of the Swedish noun hund, meaning dog. It is a grammatical inflection rather than a separate lexical item, used to express possession or association with a group of dogs. In practice it appears in phrases indicating what belongs to or relates to dogs.

Etymology and structure: The base noun hund comes from Old Norse hundr and is cognate with other Germanic terms for dog, such as the English hound. In Swedish, the genitive plural is formed by adding -s to the plural noun. There are two closely related forms for dogs: indefinite plural uses hundars, while definite plural uses hundarnas, reflecting whether the dogs are introduced as non-specific or as a specific group.

Usage and examples: Indefinite genitive plural examples include hundars färger (the dogs’ colors) or hundars ben (the dogs’ legs). The definite genitive plural is formed with hundarnas, as in hundarnas tassar (the dogs’ paws) or hundarnas ägare (the dogs’ owners). The choice between these forms depends on whether you are referring to a non-specific group of dogs or to a particular, contextually identified group.

Relation to related terms: Hundar is the plural form meaning dogs in general, while hundarna is the definite plural meaning “the dogs.” Hundars and hundarnas function as grammatical inflections, not standalone nouns. These forms illustrate how Swedish marks possession with plural nouns and how definiteness interacts with genitive constructions.

See also: Hund (dog), Hundar (dogs), Svenska ordklasser (Swedish grammar).