Breakdown of Hon vill städa soprummet därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
Questions & Answers about Hon vill städa soprummet därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
In Swedish, when you use a modal verb like vill (wants to), it is followed by the infinitive form of the main verb:
- Hon vill städa = She wants to clean
- vill = wants (modal verb)
- städa = to clean (infinitive, no -r ending)
You only use the -r ending (present tense) when the verb stands alone:
- Hon städar soprummet. = She cleans the garbage room.
So:
- Correct: Hon vill städa soprummet.
- Incorrect: Hon vill städar soprummet. (double conjugation)
Soprummet means “the garbage room” (the room where you put trash).
- The base noun is ett soprum
- sop- = garbage/trash
- -rum = room
- neuter noun (ett-word)
For ett-words, the definite singular ending is -et:
- ett soprum → soprummet = the garbage room
- ett rum → rummet = the room
- ett kök → köket = the kitchen
So soprummet = the specific garbage room, not just any garbage room.
All three can relate to causes, but they’re used differently:
- därför att = because (neutral, a bit more formal/clear)
- eftersom = because (very common, especially at the start of a sentence)
- för att = can mean “because” but also “in order to”, so it’s more ambiguous
In your sentence:
Hon vill städa soprummet därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
därför att clearly introduces a reason:
She wants to clean the garbage room because otherwise the smell comes up the stairs.
You could also say:
- … eftersom lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
Using just för att here would be more likely understood as “in order to”, which sounds more like purpose than cause and is less clear in this context. That’s why därför att or eftersom is preferred for “because.”
No. In standard Swedish it is always written as two words:
- därför att
One word “därföratt” is incorrect spelling.
Note that “därför” on its own is one word and means “therefore”/“for that reason”:
- Jag städade soprummet. Därför luktar det inte längre.
= I cleaned the garbage room. Therefore, it doesn’t smell anymore.
But when it introduces a subordinate clause meaning “because”, it’s därför att (two words).
Lukt means “smell”, and it’s an en-word:
- en lukt → lukten = the smell
In this sentence, they are talking about the particular smell from the garbage room, something both speaker and listener know about. That’s why the definite form is used:
- lukten = the smell (that we both know is there)
Compare:
- Det finns en lukt i soprummet. Lukten kommer upp i trappan.
= There is a smell in the garbage room. The smell comes up the stairs.
In a subordinate clause introduced by a conjunction like därför att, Swedish word order is usually:
[conjunction] + [subject] + [sentence adverb] + [verb] …
So:
- därför att (conjunction)
- lukten (subject)
- annars (sentence adverb = otherwise)
- kommer (verb)
- upp (particle)
- i trappan (prepositional phrase)
→ därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan
Putting annars first like:
- därför att annars lukten kommer upp i trappan
is not standard Swedish word order in a subordinate clause and sounds wrong/foreign.
You can put annars first in a main clause:
- Annars kommer lukten upp i trappan.
= Otherwise, the smell comes up the stairs.
But inside the därför att-clause, you keep subject + adverb + verb.
Komma upp is a particle verb:
- komma = to come
- upp = up
- komma upp = to come up / rise (physically or metaphorically)
Here, it literally means that the smell moves upwards into the stairwell:
lukten … kommer upp i trappan
the smell comes up into the stairway
If you only said “lukten kommer i trappan”, it would be ungrammatical or at least very odd.
In main clauses, the particle upp usually comes right after the verb:
- Lukten kommer upp i trappan.
In subordinate clauses like this one, it’s the same:
- … därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
Both i and på can appear with trappa, but they mean slightly different things:
- i trappan = in the stairway / in the stairwell
(inside the vertical space, usually indoors) - på trappan = on the stairs / on the steps
(more like “on top of the steps,” often physical location)
Here, the idea is that the smell spreads within the stairwell of an apartment building, so “i trappan” is more natural.
You might say:
- Jag sitter på trappan. = I’m sitting on the steps.
- Det luktar illa i trappan. = It smells bad in the stairwell.
Trappa and trapphus are related but not identical:
- en trappa → trappan
= (a) staircase / stairway (also used metonymically for “the stairwell”) - ett trapphus → trapphuset
= the stairwell as a separate space/part of a building
In everyday speech, trappan is often used where English would say “the stairwell”:
- Det luktar i trappan. ≈ It smells in the stairwell.
If you say trapphuset, it sounds a bit more technical/precise:
- Det luktar illa i trapphuset.
Both can be correct; trappan is just more colloquial and common in this kind of sentence.
You can move the reason clause to the front, but the main-clause word order must then change to keep verb-second (V2):
Current version:
- Hon vill städa soprummet därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan.
= She wants to clean the garbage room because otherwise the smell comes up the stairs.
Fronting the reason:
- Därför att lukten annars kommer upp i trappan vill hon städa soprummet.
This is grammatically correct but sounds quite formal/literary. In everyday speech, people usually keep the version where the main clause comes first, as in your original sentence.