Breakdown of Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad när han är nervös.
Questions & Answers about Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad när han är nervös.
Har svårt att literally means “has difficulty (to)” or “finds it hard to”.
Structure:
- ha (to have) in some tense
- svårt (hard, difficult – neuter form)
- att
- infinitive verb
So:
- Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad
≈ “He has difficulty accepting silence” / “He finds it hard to accept silence.”
More examples (same pattern):
- Jag har svårt att sova. – “I have trouble sleeping.”
- Hon hade svårt att förstå. – “She had difficulty understanding.”
It’s a very common, natural way in Swedish to say someone finds something difficult to do.
Svårt here is an adverbial or a predicative complement, not directly modifying a noun.
- svår is the common-gender adjective form, used before common-gender nouns:
- en svår uppgift – “a difficult task”
- svårt is:
- the neuter form before neuter nouns:
- ett svårt problem – “a difficult problem”
- and also the form used in some set expressions and adverbial uses, including har svårt att + infinitive.
- the neuter form before neuter nouns:
In han har svårt att acceptera tystnad, you’re not saying “a difficult something” as a noun phrase. Instead, svårt describes how or in what way he has it: he has it difficult to accept silence. This pattern ha svårt att + infinitive always uses svårt, never svår.
In att acceptera, att is the infinitive marker, like English “to” before a verb:
- att acceptera – “to accept”
- att sova – “to sleep”
- att förstå – “to understand”
Swedish att can also mean “that” when it’s a conjunction:
- Jag vet att han är nervös. – “I know that he is nervous.”
So there are two functions of att in Swedish:
- Infinitive marker: att + verb (like “to + verb”)
- Subordinating conjunction: att + clause (like “that + clause”)
In han har svårt att acceptera tystnad, it is only the infinitive marker. There is no “that” here.
No. In standard Swedish, you normally must include att before an infinitive in this construction.
- ✅ Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad.
- ❌ Han har svårt acceptera tystnad.
There are some verbs and constructions in Swedish where att can be dropped, but har svårt att + infinitive is not one of them. Learners should treat att here as obligatory.
Tystnad is an uncountable, abstract noun in this sentence, similar to English “silence” used in a general sense.
- acceptera tystnad – “accept silence (in general)”
No article is used with many mass/abstract nouns when we talk about them in a general way:
- Han gillar musik. – “He likes music.”
- Hon studerar historia. – “She studies history.”
- De uppskattar ärlighet. – “They appreciate honesty.”
You would use the definite or indefinite form when you mean a specific silence:
- Han har svårt att acceptera tystnaden i huset.
“He has difficulty accepting the silence in the house.” (a particular silence) - En pinsam tystnad uppstod.
“An awkward silence arose.” (a specific instance)
So here, because the meaning is general – “silence” as a concept – no article is used.
Yes, it can be plural, but it’s not very common and usually sounds literary or stylistic.
- Singular: en tystnad – “a silence”
- Plural: tystnader – “silences”
Example:
- Det fanns många obehagliga tystnader under mötet.
“There were many uncomfortable silences during the meeting.”
In everyday speech, tystnad is more often used as an uncountable concept, as in your sentence: acceptera tystnad = “accept silence (as a thing)”.
Both när and om can be translated to English “when”, but they’re not interchangeable:
- när = when (whenever / every time / at the time that)
It refers to an actual time or repeated situation. - om = if (and sometimes “when” in hypothetical or uncertain future)
In your sentence:
- Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad när han är nervös.
→ “He finds it hard to accept silence when he is nervous.”
This describes what actually happens in real situations.
If you said:
- Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad om han är nervös.
→ More like “He has difficulty accepting silence if he is nervous.”
That sounds a bit more conditional and less like a regular, known pattern. In context, när is more natural because it describes a typical repeated behavior.
Yes, Swedish allows the time clause to move:
- När han är nervös har han svårt att acceptera tystnad.
Word order notes:
- Main clause must respect V2 (verb in second position). In the second version:
- När han är nervös = first element (the entire clause counts as one element)
- har = second element (the finite verb)
- han svårt att acceptera tystnad = rest of the clause
Comma rule:
- In modern Swedish, you normally do not put a comma between a fronted när/om-clause and the main clause if the sentence is short and clear:
- ✅ När han är nervös har han svårt att acceptera tystnad.
- A comma can appear in longer or more complex sentences, but here it’s most natural without a comma.
- är nervös describes a state: he is in a nervous condition.
- blir nervös describes a change: he becomes nervous.
The sentence focuses on his behavior while he is already nervous:
- När han är nervös – “When he is nervous” (during the time he’s in that state)
If you said:
- När han blir nervös har han svårt att acceptera tystnad.
– “When he becomes nervous, he has difficulty accepting silence.”
This shifts the focus a little more to the moment of becoming nervous or the period starting then. Both can be grammatically correct; the original just emphasizes the ongoing state.
You could say:
- Han har svårt att acceptera tystnad när han är det.
Here, det (“it”) refers back to nervös (his nervous state). This is grammatically correct and understandable, but in this short sentence, Swedish usually just repeats han + adjective:
- … när han är nervös. sounds more natural and clear.
Using det as a pronoun for a predicative adjective is more common when you want to avoid repeating a longer phrase, or when the adjective has already been very clearly established. In simple sentences like this, sticking to när han är nervös is safest and most idiomatic.
Both can be correct, but they focus slightly differently:
Har svårt att acceptera tystnad
- Focus on the action: he has difficulty accepting silence.
- Pattern: har svårt att + infinitive (difficulty doing something).
Har svårt för tystnad
- Means “has a hard time with silence” or “doesn’t handle silence well”.
- Pattern: har svårt för + noun (difficulty with something).
Nuance:
- att acceptera tystnad suggests a more mental/attitudinal problem:
“He finds it hard to accept silence (as something okay).” - svårt för tystnad sounds more like an emotional discomfort with silence in general.
In many contexts, they can overlap, but learners should note the pattern:
- har svårt att + verb
- har svårt för + noun
Yes. Acceptera can take:
A noun phrase:
- acceptera tystnad – “accept silence”
- acceptera sanningen – “accept the truth”
A clause with att (“that”):
- acceptera att han är nervös – “accept that he is nervous”
- Hon har svårt att acceptera att mötet ställs in.
“She finds it hard to accept that the meeting is cancelled.”
Be careful: in acceptera att han är nervös, there are two different att’s:
- First att: infinitive marker (if present before acceptera).
- Second att: conjunction meaning “that” introducing the clause.
In your original sentence there is only att acceptera (infinitive marker + verb), then a noun tystnad.