Questions & Answers about Vi provkör bilen innan vi köper den.
What does provkör mean, and why is it written as one word?
Provkör is the present-tense form of provköra, which means to test-drive.
It is written as one word because Swedish very often makes compound verbs and compound nouns. Here:
- prov = test / trial
- köra = drive
So provköra literally means something like test-drive.
The form provkör is used with vi in the present tense:
- jag provkör
- du provkör
- vi provkör
Swedish present-tense verbs do not change for different persons the way English verbs sometimes do.
Why is it bilen and not en bil?
Bilen means the car, while en bil means a car.
Swedish adds the definite article to the end of the noun:
- en bil = a car
- bilen = the car
In this sentence, it is a specific car, not just any car, so Swedish uses the definite form bilen.
Why is den used at the end?