Breakdown of Jag dricker kaffe före mötet.
Questions & Answers about Jag dricker kaffe före mötet.
Swedish does not use a separate “am/is/are” + -ing form to show the present progressive like English does.
The simple present dricker covers both:
- I drink coffee before the meeting. (habit)
- I am drinking coffee before the meeting. (right now / planned)
So:
- Jag dricker kaffe före mötet.
can mean both “I drink coffee before the meeting” and “I am drinking coffee before the meeting.”
Context usually makes clear whether it’s about a habit, something happening right now, or a planned future action.
In Swedish, kaffe is often treated as a mass noun, just like water or milk:
- Jag dricker kaffe. = I drink coffee. (some amount of coffee, in general)
When you talk about coffee in general or an unspecified amount, you normally don’t use an article.
You can use an article in other situations:
- ett kaffe – a coffee (often meaning a cup of coffee in a café context)
- kaffet – the coffee (a specific coffee that’s been mentioned or is understood)
In this sentence, we just mean some coffee, not a specific one, so kaffe has no article.
Mötet is the definite singular form of möte (meeting).
- ett möte – a meeting (indefinite)
- mötet – the meeting (definite)
For ett-words (neuter nouns), the definite singular ending is usually -et:
- ett hus → huset (a house → the house)
- ett möte → mötet (a meeting → the meeting)
So före mötet literally means “before the meeting”, referring to a specific, known meeting.
Unfortunately, the grammatical gender of Swedish nouns (whether they are en or ett) is mostly something you have to memorize with each word.
For this word:
- ett möte – a meeting
- mötet – the meeting
- möten – meetings
- mötena – the meetings
A good habit is to always learn new nouns together with their article:
- ett möte (not just möte)
There are some patterns, but möte doesn’t follow a simple rule you can guess from the ending; you just need to learn it as an ett-word.
Both före and innan can be translated as before, but they are used slightly differently:
före is mainly a preposition and is followed directly by a noun phrase:
- före mötet – before the meeting
- före middagen – before dinner
innan is mainly a subordinating conjunction and is followed by a clause (subject + verb):
- innan mötet börjar – before the meeting starts
- innan jag går hem – before I go home
However, in modern spoken Swedish, people do often say:
- innan mötet
and many accept it, but före mötet is the more traditional and clearly correct choice when only a noun follows.
So:
- Jag dricker kaffe före mötet. ✔ (standard)
- Jag dricker kaffe innan mötet. ✔ (common in speech, some style guides prefer före here)
- Jag dricker kaffe innan mötet börjar. ✔✔ (perfect use of innan with a verb clause)
Yes, that is correct Swedish and sounds natural:
- Före mötet dricker jag kaffe.
Swedish main clauses normally follow V2 word order (the finite verb is in second position):
- (Anything) – subject, time phrase, object, etc.
- Finite verb (here: dricker)
- The rest of the sentence.
So:
- Jag (subject) dricker (verb) kaffe före mötet.
- Före mötet (time phrase) dricker (verb) jag kaffe.
What you cannot do is put the time phrase in the middle like in English:
- ✖ Jag före mötet dricker kaffe. (wrong word order)
Yes, Swedish often uses the present tense for near future actions, especially when the time is clear from context:
- Jag dricker kaffe före mötet.
can mean:- I drink coffee before the meeting. (habit)
- I am drinking coffee before the meeting. (now)
- I am going to drink / will drink coffee before the meeting. (future plan)
If you want to make the future meaning extra clear, you can use ska:
- Jag ska dricka kaffe före mötet. – I will drink / I’m going to drink coffee before the meeting.
But in everyday speech, the simple present is very common for planned future events.
Standard careful pronunciation (rough guide using English-like sounds):
- Jag – often like “yahg”; in everyday speech frequently reduced to “ya”.
- dricker – “DRIH-ker” (short i like in sit).
- kaffe – “KAFF-eh” (both f’s pronounced, short a, short final e).
- före – “FØH-reh”; ö is similar to the vowel in British bird, but rounded.
- mötet – “MØH-tet”; same ö sound; stress on MÖ, short final -et.
Natural, slightly reduced everyday version might sound like:
- “Ja dricker kaffe före mötet.”
Main stresses: JAG, DRIcker, KAffe, FÖre, MÖtet (primary stress on dricker, kaffe, mötet).
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.
- dricker kaffe – explicitly drink coffee.
- fikar – have a fika: a Swedish coffee break, often with something sweet to eat, and a social aspect.
So:
- Jag dricker kaffe före mötet. – I drink coffee before the meeting. (focus on the drink)
- Jag fikar före mötet. – I have a coffee break before the meeting. (might include coffee, a snack, and the social ritual)
Use dricker kaffe if you literally mean just drinking coffee; use fikar if you mean a fika break.
Yes, that is exactly how you say it, and the placement of inte is important.
In main clauses, inte usually comes after the finite verb:
- Jag dricker inte kaffe före mötet. – I don’t drink coffee before the meeting.
Word order pattern:
- Subject: Jag
- Finite verb: dricker
- Negation: inte
- Objects/adverbs: kaffe före mötet
You can also move the time phrase to the front; inte still stays after the verb:
- Före mötet dricker jag inte kaffe. – Before the meeting, I don’t drink coffee.
No, you cannot use framför here.
- före refers to time: before (in time).
- framför refers to position/space: in front of (in space).
So:
- före mötet – before the meeting (time)
- framför huset – in front of the house (place)
“Jag dricker kaffe framför mötet” would (if interpreted literally) mean something like “I drink coffee in front of the meeting”, which doesn’t make sense.
Always use före (or innan) for time and framför for physical location in front of something.
There are a few natural options; all are correct:
- Jag dricker kaffe varje dag före mötet.
- Jag dricker varje dag kaffe före mötet. (less common, but possible)
- Varje dag dricker jag kaffe före mötet.
Most natural and neutral is probably:
- Jag dricker kaffe varje dag före mötet.
General pattern with adverbs:
- Subject + verb + object + time adverbials (like varje dag) + more specific time phrases (före mötet).
Yes, you can say:
- Jag tar en kaffe före mötet.
Differences:
- dricker kaffe – focuses on the action of drinking coffee, general and neutral.
- tar en kaffe – idiomatic, more like “grab a coffee” or “have a coffee”, often referring to one cup and a slightly more informal, situational feeling.
So:
- Jag dricker kaffe före mötet. – I (usually) drink coffee before the meeting.
- Jag tar en kaffe före mötet. – I’ll grab a coffee before the meeting. (one specific coffee, more colloquial)