Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.

She pretended as if she did not hear the question.

Breakdown of Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.

• hon: she
• inte: not
• frågan: the question
• höra: to hear
• låtsas: to pretend
• som om: as if

Questions & Answers about Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.

What does låtsades mean, and why does it end in -s?

Låtsades is the past tense of the verb låtsas, which means to pretend.

The -s is not a passive ending here; låtsas is what’s called a deponent verb in Swedish:

• infinitive: att låtsas – to pretend
• present: hon låtsas – she pretends
• past: hon låtsades – she pretended

So the -s is simply part of the verb’s normal form, not a passive construction.

Is låtsades a passive form?

No. Swedish uses -s for two different things:

1. Passive voice (e.g. boken lästes – the book was read).
2. Deponent verbs, which always end in -s but are active in meaning (e.g. hoppas, trivas, låtsas).

Låtsas belongs to the second group.
Hon låtsades means she pretended, not she was pretended or anything passive.

What is the function of som om in this sentence?

Som om means “as if / as though”.

In Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan, it introduces the imagined or faked situation:

• som om hon inte hörde frågan = as if she didn’t hear the question.

So the structure is:

• låtsades – pretended
• som om – as if
• hon inte hörde frågan – she did not hear the question

Can I replace som om with att? For example: Hon låtsades att hon inte hörde frågan?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct, and very natural.

Nuance:

• Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan
  – slightly more vivid/imaginative, emphasizing acting as if in a particular way.

• Hon låtsades att hon inte hörde frågan
  – a bit more neutral: She pretended that she didn’t hear the question.

Both are common and acceptable in everyday Swedish.

Why is the word order hon inte hörde frågan, with inte before hörde?

Because this is a subordinate clause introduced by som om.

In Swedish:

• In a main clause, the verb is in second position:
  Hon hörde inte frågan. – She didn’t hear the question.

• In a subordinate clause, the order is normally: subject – satsadverbial (like inte) – verb:
  … att hon inte hörde frågan
  … som om hon inte hörde frågan

So hon inte hörde is the standard word order for a negated subordinate clause.

Why is it hörde (past tense) and not hör (present tense)?

Because the whole situation is in the past. The pretending and the not-hearing are simultaneous past events:

• Hon låtsades (past)
• hon inte hörde (past, at the same time)

Using hör (present) here would be ungrammatical in standard Swedish:
✗ Hon låtsades som om hon inte hör frågan – wrong in this context.

Could I say Hon låtsades inte höra frågan instead? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, you can say:

• Hon låtsades inte höra frågan.

This means She pretended not to hear the question.

The meaning is very close, but the structure is different:

• Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.
  – full clause after som om, more like as if she didn’t hear the question.

• Hon låtsades inte höra frågan.
  – inte directly negates höra (to hear): pretended not to hear the question.

Both are idiomatic; the original one sounds a bit more descriptive/story-like.

Why is it frågan (definite) and not en fråga?

Frågan is the definite form (the question), so the sentence implies that:

• the speaker and listener both know which specific question it was.

Compare:

• Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.
  – …the question (that had just been asked / that we’re talking about).

• Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde en fråga.
  – sounds odd; using en fråga (a question) usually doesn’t fit well with this context, because pretending not to hear almost always refers to a specific, known question.

Could I drop the second hon and say Hon låtsades som om inte hörde frågan?

No, you must keep the subject hon in the subordinate clause.

Swedish does not allow subject drop in this kind of clause. So:

• ✔ Hon låtsades som om hon inte hörde frågan.
• ✗ Hon låtsades som om inte hörde frågan.

Every finite clause in standard Swedish needs an explicit subject (except in very limited cases like imperatives: Kom! Come!).

Is there any “subjunctive” involved in hon inte hörde frågan, like in English as if she didn’t hear?

Swedish does not have a productive, separate subjunctive system like English or many other European languages.

Here, hörde is just the normal past tense form. The “unreal” or “pretend” meaning comes from:

• the verb låtsades – pretended
• the expression som om – as if

Together they create the idea of an unreal situation, without any special subjunctive verb form.