Learn Hardcore Swedish: Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb. - She received about ten thousand kronor for her first summer job.

Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.

She received about ten thousand kronor for her first summer job.

Breakdown of Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.

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Questions & Answers about Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.

What does fick mean here, and what tense is it?

Fick is the past tense (preterite) of the verb få.

få = to get / to receive / to be allowed to
får = present tense
- Hon får pengar. – She gets money.
fick = past tense
- Hon fick pengar. – She got / received money.

In this sentence, Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor… = “She got/received about ten thousand kronor…”, referring to a completed event in the past.

Why is it sitt and not sin or hennes?

Swedish has special reflexive possessive pronouns: sin, sitt, sina. They are used when the thing belongs to the subject of the sentence.

sin – for en-words (common gender)
sitt – for ett-words (neuter gender)
sina – for plural nouns

Here the possessed noun is sommarjobb, and jobb is an ett-word: ett jobb.
So you must use sitt:

Hon fick … för sitt första sommarjobb.
“She got … for her first summer job (her own).”

If you said hennes första sommarjobb, it would normally be understood as “someone else’s first summer job” (not the subject’s own), or at least sound less naturally reflexive in context:

Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för hennes första sommarjobb.
This suggests: She got about ten thousand kronor for her (some other girl’s) first summer job.

So:

Same person as the subject → sin/sitt/sina
Someone else, or no subject link → hans / hennes / deras

How do sin / sitt / sina differ from hans / hennes / deras in general?

Basic rule:

Use sin / sitt / sina when the possessor is the subject of the clause.
Use hans / hennes / deras when the possessor is not the subject (or when you want to emphasize that it’s someone else).

Examples:

Han tog på sig sin jacka.
He put on his (own) jacket.
Han tog på sig hans jacka.
He put on his (another man’s) jacket.
De sålde sitt hus.
They sold their own house.
De sålde deras hus.
They sold their (some other people’s) house.

In your sentence, Hon is the subject, and the job is her own job, so sitt is correct.

Why is it tio tusen and not written together as one word?

Both tio tusen and tiotusen can occur, but:

In modern, standard Swedish, numbers are usually written separately as words:
- tio tusen (10,000)
- fem tusen trehundra (5,300)
You sometimes see them together in special contexts:
- in older texts
- in fixed expressions
- in informal writing or when used almost like a single “label” word

For a sentence like this, tio tusen (two words) is the normal, neutral spelling.

Spoken language:

Pronounced as one phrase: [tio tusen]
Meaning: “ten thousand”

Why is it kronor and not krona or kronorna?

Krona is a noun with the following main forms:

Singular indefinite: en krona – one krona
Plural indefinite: kronor – kronor (no “the”)
Plural definite: kronorna – the kronor

In the sentence:

tio tusen kronor = “ten thousand kronor” (no article, just an amount)

So we use:

kronor because it’s more than one
indefinite form because we’re talking about an amount, not specific “the kronor”

Compare:

Hon fick en krona. – She got one krona.
Hon fick tio kronor. – She got ten kronor.
Hon tappade kronorna. – She lost the kronor.

What does ungefär mean, and where can it go in the sentence?

Ungefär means “about / approximately”.

Typical placement for quantity adverbs is before the amount:

Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor…
She got about ten thousand kronor…

Other possible positions:

Hon fick tio tusen kronor, ungefär. – more spoken, with a slight pause, “ten thousand kronor, roughly.”
Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb. – the most natural written order.

You usually don’t put ungefär after the noun phrase in neutral written style (“Hon fick tio tusen kronor ungefär” sounds rather informal and slightly clumsy in writing).

Why is it för sitt första sommarjobb and not something like i sitt första sommarjobb?

Here för means “for (in return for)” – the money is payment for the work she did.

få X kronor för ett jobb
= to get X kronor for a job (as payment for doing it)

Prepositions with payment:

för – very common with this meaning:
- Hon fick 200 kronor för att städa rummet.
  She got 200 kronor for cleaning the room.
- De betalade mycket för bilen.
  They paid a lot for the car.
i lön (“in wages/salary”) is also common:
- Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor i lön.
  She got about ten thousand kronor in wages.

i sitt första sommarjobb would suggest “in her first summer job” in a more literal location sense, and doesn’t naturally express the idea of pay for work in this structure.

What exactly does sommarjobb mean, and how is it formed?

Sommarjobb is a compound noun:

sommar = summer
jobb = job

Together: sommarjobb = summer job (a job you have during the summer, often as a student).

Grammar:

It’s an ett-word: ett sommarjobb
Indefinite singular: ett sommarjobb
Definite singular: sommarjobbet
Indefinite plural: sommarjobb
Definite plural: sommarjobben

In the sentence, we have för sitt första sommarjobb:

för – for
sitt – her own (reflexive, neuter)
första – first
sommarjobb – summer job (indefinite form)

So literally: “for her first summer job.”

Why is the word order Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor…? Could it be different?

Swedish is generally a V2 language: the finite verb (here fick) tends to be the second element in main clauses.

Elements:

Hon (subject)
fick (finite verb)
ungefär tio tusen kronor (object with adverb)
för sitt första sommarjobb (prepositional phrase)

This is the neutral order: Subject – Verb – (Adverb/Other) – Object – Rest.

You can move other parts for emphasis:

Ungefär tio tusen kronor fick hon för sitt första sommarjobb.
Now “ungefär tio tusen kronor” is in the first position (topic), so fick still appears in second place. This sounds more marked/emphatic.

For a learner, the safest pattern is:

Subject – Verb – (adverb) – Object – Time/Place/Other
which is exactly what you see here.

Could I say Hon tjänade ungefär tio tusen kronor instead of Hon fick…? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say that, but there is a nuance difference:

få (fick) = “to get / receive”
Neutral about how she got the money. It fits well for pay, gifts, scholarships, etc.
tjäna (tjänade) = “to earn” (by working)
Emphasizes that the money came from her own work.

So:

Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.
She got/received about 10,000 kronor for her first summer job. (Focus on the amount she ended up with.)
Hon tjänade ungefär tio tusen kronor på sitt första sommarjobb.
She earned about 10,000 kronor at/from her first summer job. (Focus on earning through work; often you’d use på here.)

Both are correct; tjänade makes the “earned by working” aspect more explicit.

Could I say Hon har fått ungefär tio tusen kronor… instead of Hon fick…?

Yes, but it changes the aspect slightly:

Hon fick… = simple past (preterite)
A completed event in the past, often anchored to a known time:
Hon fick ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.
She got about 10,000 kronor for her first summer job. (That’s done and over.)
Hon har fått… = present perfect
Connects the past event to the present in some way (relevance, result, or unspecified time):
Hon har fått ungefär tio tusen kronor för sitt första sommarjobb.
She has gotten about 10,000 kronor for her first summer job. (Focus on the result up to now, or on the fact that this has happened at some point.)

In a simple narrative about past events, fick is usually more natural. Use har fått when you want a “has gotten” feeling with relevance to now.