Ringde hon dig i morse eller igår?

Did she call you this morning or yesterday?

Breakdown of Ringde hon dig i morse eller igår?

• eller: or
• hon: she
• ringa: to call
• igår: yesterday
• dig: you
• i morse: this morning

Questions & Answers about Ringde hon dig i morse eller igår?

Why does the verb come first in Ringde hon dig …?

• In direct questions, Swedish inverts the order: the finite verb comes before the subject.
• Statement: Hon ringde dig i morse.
• Question: Ringde hon dig i morse?
• This inversion is used for yes/no questions and for alternative questions like this one.

Can I ask it without inversion, like Hon ringde dig i morse eller igår?

• In writing, that is read as a statement, not a question.
• In speech, some people might rely on questioning intonation, but the standard and safest form is to invert: Ringde hon dig …?

Is the past tense ringde correct? What are the principal parts of ringa?

• Yes. ringa – ringer – ringde – ringt
• Common mistakes to avoid: not ringade, not the supine ringt for the preterite.

How do I pronounce ringde, dig, and i morse?

• ringde: say it like “RING-deh”; there’s no separate hard “g” sound. Think [riŋ-de].
• dig: pronounced like “day” ([dej]); informal spelling dej matches the sound.
• i morse: the rs merges to a “sh” sound; roughly “ee MOR-sheh”.

What exactly does i morse mean? Can it refer to yesterday morning?

• i morse = this morning (earlier today). It’s only for the morning of the current day.
• For yesterday morning, say i går morse.
• For the late morning/forenoon earlier today, you can also say i förmiddags.

Is igår one word or two? And what about i morse / imorse?

• Both igår and i går are accepted in modern Swedish.
• i morse should be written as two words in standard Swedish; imorse is common informally but avoided in formal writing.

Do I need to repeat i before the second time expression?

• No. i morse eller igår is normal.
• You may write i morse eller i går (with a space) if you prefer that spelling, but repeating i is not required.

Is it okay that one option is a specific time (i morse) and the other is a whole day (igår)?

• Yes, it’s natural: “this morning (today)” vs. “yesterday (at any time).”
• If you want fully parallel times of day, use i morse eller i går morse.

Where does the object pronoun dig go? Could I say Ringde hon i morse dig?

• Default order in questions is: Verb – Subject – Object – (Time).
• So: Ringde hon dig i morse … is the neutral order.
• Ringde hon i morse dig sounds odd.
• You can front the object for emphasis: Dig ringde hon i morse, but that’s marked focus.

Can I use ringa with till, like Ringde hon till dig?

• Yes. Both are fine:
  • ringa någon (most common)
  • ringa till någon (also common/accepted)
• ringa upp någon = to call (call up), often with a “call back/return the call” feel.

Could I repeat the whole clause for clarity?

• Yes: Ringde hon dig i morse, eller ringde hon dig i går?
• It’s a bit heavier but perfectly grammatical and clearer in some contexts.

Does eller here work like a tag question (“right?”), or is it a true alternative?

• In this sentence it’s a true alternative: “this morning or yesterday?”
• A tag-question use would be: Hon ringde dig i morse, eller? = “She called you this morning, right?”

Is it okay to say dej instead of dig?

• In informal writing, dej (and mej for mig) is common and reflects pronunciation.
• In formal writing, stick to dig (and mig).