Swedish noun· top 5,000 most common

en tomte

Santa Claus, brownie/ˈtɔmˌte/

Meaning

Santa Claus; brownie

In Swedish: en sagofigur som vakar över en gård; jultomte

Forms

Forms of tomte
Singular, indefiniteen tomte
Singular, definitetomten
Plural, indefinitetomtar
Plural, definitetomtarna

tomte is an en-word, so adjectives agree with it: en stor tomte, den stora tomten. Check another noun

Practise tomte

1 / 2

Is it en tomte or ett tomte?

tomte in a sentence

  • Om tomten inte får en klick smör i sin julgröt kan han bli arg och göra stor skada.
    If the house gnome doesn’t get a dab of butter in his Christmas porridge, he might get angry and do great harm.
  • Moster Agneta klädde ut sig till tomte och delade ut klappar till barnen.
    Aunt Agneta dressed up as Santa and handed out presents to the children.
  • Vad är det för tomte som har slängt mina kläder i snön?
    What kind of fool threw my clothes in the snow?
  • Din man är en riktig hustomte när han snickrar på möbler.
    Your husband is a real busy bee when he does woodworking on furniture.

Questions

What does tomte mean in English?

tomte means “Santa Claus, brownie”.

Is it en tomte or ett tomte?

It is en tomte, and “the Santa Claus” is tomten.

What is the plural of tomte?

The plural of tomte is tomtar, and the definite plural is tomtarna.

Similar words

jultomte

Origin

Attested since 1790 according to Svenska Akademiens ordbok.

Nearby common words

tomte is number 3,889 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

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Sources: Folkets lexikon (CC BY-SA 2.5) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), edited by Lingolib. Recording: Wikimedia Commons. Browse the dictionary