Breakdown of Efter modevisningen känner hon sig trygg i sin röda klänning.
Questions & Answers about Efter modevisningen känner hon sig trygg i sin röda klänning.
Swedish normally follows the V2 rule: the finite verb (here: känner) must be in second position in a main clause.
- The phrase Efter modevisningen (After the fashion show) is put first.
- That whole phrase counts as position 1.
- Therefore the verb känner must come next, in position 2.
- The subject hon (she) then comes after the verb.
So:
- Neutral order: Hon känner sig trygg i sin röda klänning.
- With a time phrase first: Efter modevisningen känner hon sig trygg i sin röda klänning.
Both are correct Swedish; the second simply emphasizes when she feels safe.
känna sig is a reflexive verb meaning “to feel (in oneself)”, in the sense of an internal state:
- känna sig trygg – to feel safe/secure
- känna sig trött – to feel tired
- känna sig sjuk – to feel ill
The reflexive pronoun sig shows that the subject feels something about themselves.
Compare:
- känna (without sig) often means “to feel” (with an object) or “to know” (a person):
- Jag känner honom. – I know him.
- Jag känner smärta. – I feel pain.
Versus:
- Jag känner mig trött. – I feel tired (I feel myself to be tired).
Here, hon känner sig trygg literally is “she feels herself safe.”
All three can sometimes translate as “safe/comfortable,” but they’re used differently:
trygg
- Emotional or general sense of feeling safe, secure, protected.
- Often about inner security or a safe environment/relationship.
- Jag känner mig trygg här. – I feel safe/secure here.
säker
- More about objective safety or certainty.
- “Safe” as in not dangerous, or “certain/sure”:
- Är bron säker? – Is the bridge safe?
- Jag är säker på det. – I’m sure of that.
bekväm
- Mainly physically comfortable or convenient.
- Stolen är bekväm. – The chair is comfortable.
- Can also mean a lazy / comfort-seeking person in some contexts.
In this sentence, trygg i sin röda klänning suggests she feels secure and confident wearing the dress, not just that the dress is physically comfortable.
Swedish uses two kinds of “her”:
sin / sitt / sina – reflexive possessive
- Used when the thing belongs to the subject of the clause.
- Must “point back” to the subject.
hennes – non‑reflexive possessive
- Used when the owner is someone else (not the subject), or when you specifically want to emphasize “her (someone else’s)”.
In this sentence:
- Subject: hon (she)
- Possession: the dress belongs to that same hon.
- Therefore: sin röda klänning = “her own red dress”.
If you said:
- Efter modevisningen känner hon sig trygg i hennes röda klänning.
it would normally be understood as:
- After the fashion show, she feels safe in her (another woman’s) red dress.
So sin is required to show the dress is her own.
Adjectives in Swedish change form depending on whether the noun phrase is definite or indefinite.
Indefinite, common gender, singular:
- en röd klänning – a red dress
Definite (or with a possessive like min, sin, hennes):
- den röda klänningen – the red dress
- min röda klänning – my red dress
- sin röda klänning – her (own) red dress
With possessives, the adjective always takes the definite form, which for regular adjectives is -a:
- röd → röda before sin/sitt/sina, min/mitt/mina, hennes, hans, vår, etc.
So:
- sin röd klänning ❌ (wrong form)
- sin röda klänning ✅ (correct definite adjective form)
For clothes being worn, Swedish normally uses i:
- Hon är i en röd klänning. – She is in a red dress (she’s wearing a red dress).
- Han kom i kostym. – He arrived in a suit.
Using med or på here would sound unnatural if you mean “wearing”:
- med sin röda klänning – more like “with her red dress (as an accompaniment)”, not about wearing it.
- på sin röda klänning – “on her red dress” (location on the dress), not “in”.
So i sin röda klänning clearly means she is wearing the dress.
modevisningen is the definite singular form of modevisning (fashion show).
- mode – fashion
- visning – showing, display
- modevisning – fashion show (an en‑word, common gender)
- modevisningen – the fashion show
In Swedish, most en‑words form the definite singular with -en:
- en bil – a car → bilen – the car
- en bok – a book → boken – the book
- en modevisning – a fashion show → modevisningen – the fashion show
So Efter modevisningen means “After the fashion show”.
Yes, Efter modevisningen är hon trygg i sin röda klänning is grammatically correct.
Nuance:
- är trygg – states a quality/state: she is safe/secure.
- känner sig trygg – emphasizes her subjective feeling of safety.
In many contexts they overlap, but:
- känner sig trygg focuses more on her personal experience.
- är trygg can sound a bit more factual/objective (“she is in a safe state / position”).
In this sentence about confidence in a dress, känner hon sig trygg is more natural because it’s clearly about how she feels.
Yes, that word order is also correct:
- Efter modevisningen känner hon sig trygg i sin röda klänning.
- Hon känner sig trygg i sin röda klänning efter modevisningen.
Both are fine.
Differences in feel:
- Putting Efter modevisningen first makes the time frame more prominent and forces inversion (känner hon).
- Putting it at the end sounds a bit more neutral and closer to typical English order.
Meaning-wise, they are practically the same here.
sig is the normal reflexive pronoun used with reflexive verbs:
- känna sig, skynda sig, sätta sig, etc.
sig själv (himself/herself/themselves) is used when you want to emphasize the reflexive meaning, often like English “himself/herself” in a contrastive way:
- Hon ser sig själv i spegeln. – She sees herself in the mirror.
- Han skyller inte på andra, bara på sig själv. – He doesn’t blame others, only himself.
In Hon känner sig trygg, the reflexive is just part of the standard verb känna sig. There is no special emphasis, so you use sig, not sig själv.