Breakdown of På våren försvinner snön och barnen leker igen i parken.
Questions & Answers about På våren försvinner snön och barnen leker igen i parken.
Swedish normally uses “på” with seasons to talk about things that happen generally in that season:
- på våren – in (the) spring
- på sommaren – in (the) summer
- på vintern – in (the) winter
So “På våren” is the natural idiomatic way to say “In (the) spring”.
Using “i våren” is ungrammatical in this general, seasonal sense.
Swedish often uses the definite form for things that are seen as regular, recurring parts of the world, especially:
- times of day: på morgonen (in the morning)
- days/parts of the week in a general sense: på kvällen (in the evening)
- seasons: på våren (in the spring)
So “våren” here doesn’t mean one specific spring; it means springtime in general.
This use of the definite form is very common and feels natural to Swedes.
Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position, no matter what comes first.
Here, the first element is an adverbial:
- På våren – first position
- Then the verb must come: försvinner
- Then the subject: snön
So the order is:
På våren (1) försvinner (2) snön (3)…
If you start with the subject instead, you can say:
- Snön försvinner på våren. – The snow disappears in spring.
Both sentences are correct; the first just starts with the time expression, so the verb moves in front of the subject.
The basic meaning is the same, but the emphasis shifts slightly:
- På våren försvinner snön…
– Emphasizes when it happens (in the spring). - Snön försvinner på våren…
– Emphasizes what happens to the snow (that it disappears), and then adds when.
In everyday speech, both are natural and very close in feel. The difference is more about focus than about meaning.
In Swedish, weather phenomena and natural things that are familiar in the context are often referred to with the definite form:
- snön – the snow
- regnet – the rain
- vinden – the wind
Here, we’re talking about “the snow” that is on the ground in winter. It’s a specific, known snow mass, not snow in general as a substance.
You could say “På våren försvinner snö”, but that would sound odd or very abstract, like “some snow disappears” rather than “the snow we have”.
Swedish uses the present tense for:
- habits and things that regularly happen
- general truths
So:
- På våren försvinner snön.
= In (the) spring, the snow disappears (as a regular thing / every spring).
English also does this: In spring, the snow disappears.
You do not need any special form for “every year”; the plain present tense is correct here.
“försvinner” is the present tense of “försvinna”, which means:
- to disappear, to vanish, to go away
In this sentence:
- snön försvinner = the snow disappears / melts away
It’s often used for:
- things literally vanishing:
Nycklarna har försvunnit. – The keys have disappeared / gone missing. - things no longer being present:
Smärtan försvann. – The pain went away.
Swedish distinguishes:
- barn – children (indefinite plural, general group)
- barnen – the children (definite plural, a specific group)
In “barnen leker igen i parken”, “barnen” suggests a particular group of children everyone in the situation already knows about:
- e.g. the local kids who always play in that park.
If you wanted to speak more generally about children as a group, you could say:
- På våren leker barn i parken. – In spring, children play in the park.
Both are correct; it’s about whether we mean “the children” (definite) or “children” (in general).
Swedish splits the English verb “to play” mainly into two verbs:
- leka – to play in a childlike way, imaginative / physical play
(kids playing, playing with toys, playing around) - spela – to play organized games, sports, or instruments
(spela fotboll, spela gitarr, spela spel)
In this sentence, children are just playing in the park, so the correct verb is:
- barnen leker – the children play (in the childlike sense)
Saying “barnen spelar i parken” would sound like they are playing a specific game/sport or instrument there.
The neutral word order in Swedish puts many short adverbs (like inte, ofta, alltid, igen) right after the verb in main clauses:
- barnen leker igen i parken
This is a very standard placement.
You can move “igen” for emphasis:
- Barnen leker i parken igen.
– Slightly more focus on “in the park again” (the location being repeated). - Barnen leker igen. (no “i parken”)
– Focus on the fact that they are playing again, somewhere.
In your original sentence, the default placement after the verb is most natural.
Swedish uses “i” and “på” differently from English “in/on”:
- i parken – in the park (inside the park area)
- på gården – in the yard / out in the yard
- på lekplatsen – at the playground
- i skogen – in the forest
A park is seen as an area with boundaries that you are inside, so “i parken” is used.
“på parken” would be wrong in standard Swedish in this sense.
Very roughly compared to English:
å in våren
– Similar to the vowel in “more” or “law”, but a bit clearer and not a diphthong.
– IPA: [oː] – a long “oh”-like sound.ö in försvinner, snön
– Similar to the vowel in British English “bird” or “nurse”, or the French “deux”.
– IPA: [ø] or [œ]/[œː] depending on length.
Very roughly:
- våren ≈ “VOH-ren”
- snön ≈ “snurn” (with a short, central, rounded vowel)
- försvinner ≈ “furr-SVIN-ner” (again with that “bird”-like vowel in för-)