In English the words "mathematics professor" are 2:
mathematics professor
We get 3 meanings from these 2 words: Mathematics, professor and mathematics professor. In Swedish the words are
- matematik
- professor
but "mathematics professor" is a 3rd word on its own i.e. matematikprofessor. So in Swedish we have 3 words for 3 meanings while in English the building blocks are just the 2 words. So in this case Swedish has more words than English. But on the whole, English has many more words than Swedish. Why when we in Swedish make new words in a way that English doesn't? Are there so many words in English that simply aren't translated?