Vi kontrollbesiktar bilen före ägarbytet.

We have the car inspected for roadworthiness before the transfer of ownership.

Breakdown of Vi kontrollbesiktar bilen före ägarbytet.

• vi: we
• bilen: the car
• före: before
• ägarbytet: the transfer of ownership

Questions & Answers about Vi kontrollbesiktar bilen före ägarbytet.

Why is kontrollbesiktar one long word?

Swedish often makes compound words, where English might use two or more separate words.

So kontrollbesiktar is built from the idea of a control/inspection check plus the verb ending. In everyday Swedish, compounds are extremely common, and they are usually written as one word, not separated.

A learner coming from English may expect something like inspect-check as two words, but Swedish prefers one combined form much more often.

What form of the verb is kontrollbesiktar?

It is the present tense.

The basic infinitive is att kontrollbesikta = to carry out an inspection / to have something officially inspected, depending on context.

So:

• att kontrollbesikta = infinitive
• kontrollbesiktar = present tense, inspect / are inspecting

In this sentence, Vi kontrollbesiktar ... means We inspect / We are carrying out the inspection of ...

Why is it vi kontrollbesiktar and not something like vi är kontrollbesiktar?