Breakdown of Jag behöver lägga till mer vatten i receptet.
jag
I
vattnet
the water
i
in
behöva
to need
receptet
the recipe
lägga till
to add
mer
more
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Questions & Answers about Jag behöver lägga till mer vatten i receptet.
What does behöver mean and how is it used here?
behöver is the present tense of the verb behöva (“to need”). It functions like a modal auxiliary, so it’s followed by another verb in the infinitive without att: e.g. Jag behöver äta (“I need to eat”). In the sentence it simply expresses necessity: “I need to...”.
Why isn’t there an att before lägga?
After modal-like verbs such as behöver, vill, kan, ska, måste, the next verb appears in the bare infinitive (no att). You could sometimes insert att in other contexts, but with modals it’s normally dropped: Jag behöver lägga... (not Jag behöver att lägga...).
Why use lägga till instead of tillsätta? Aren’t they both “to add”?
Both can mean “to add,” but differ in style:
• lägga till (two words) is neutral/everyday speech: add something to something else.
• tillsätta (one word) is more formal or technical (e.g. recipe or chemistry instructions).
Here the speaker opts for the conversational lägga till.
What exactly does lägga till mean, and is it separable?
lägga till is a verb + preposition meaning “to add.” It is not separable in Swedish, so you never split it up:
Correct: Jag lägger till socker.
Not: Jag lägger socker till.
Why is it mer vatten and not fler vatten?
Swedish uses mer with uncountable or mass nouns (water, sugar, milk) and fler with countable nouns (apples, eggs, carrots). Since vatten is uncountable, mer vatten (“more water”) is correct.
Why isn’t vatten in the definite form here?
When referring to an unspecified additional amount of water, you use the indefinite vatten. Definite form (vatten-et) would mean “the water,” i.e. a specific body of water, which isn’t intended here.
What does the -et ending in receptet indicate?
Swedish marks definiteness with a suffix. Recept is an “ett”-word, so you add -et to make it definite: receptet = “the recipe.”
Why is the preposition i used in i receptet?
i means “in” and shows location inside something. Since a recipe is like a container of instructions or text, you say i receptet (“in the recipe”). Using på (“on”) here would be incorrect.
Can I move i receptet to the front of the sentence?
Yes, but Swedish is a V2 language, so if you start with an adverbial like i receptet, you must invert subject and verb:
I receptet behöver jag lägga till mer vatten.