mången

See also: mangen and mang en

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish manger, margher, marghin, from Old Norse mangr, margr, from Proto-Germanic *managaz.

Pronoun

mången c, månget n, mångt n, många pl

1. (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. […]

2. (plural only) many, many people
   • Många vill ha senap på korven.

     Many want mustard on their hot dog.

Usage notes

• 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.

Derived terms

• mång-

See also

• mycken

References

• mången in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mången in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mången in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)