Questions & Answers about Nu är tallriken bortplockad.
Why is it är bortplockad and not something like har plockats bort?
Swedish has two main ways to express a passive/result:
Stative passive: vara + past participle
- Nu är tallriken bortplockad.
- Focus: the state the plate is in now (it is in the “cleared-away” state).
Event/dynamic passive: bli/vara + past participle or har + passive form
- Nu har tallriken plockats bort.
- Focus: the action of someone clearing it away.
In your sentence, är bortplockad describes the resulting state after someone has cleared the plate away, not the action itself. That’s why är + participle is used instead of har plockats bort.
What exactly is bortplockad made from, and what does bort do?
Bortplockad comes from the verb phrase plocka bort:
- plocka = to pick, to pick up, to gather
- bort = away (a particle meaning “away, off, removed”)
Together, plocka bort ≈ “to clear away / to remove (by picking up)”.
The past participle of plocka bort is formed by:
- turning plocka into plockad (regular -a verb → -ad participle)
- attaching the particle bort in front → bortplockad
So bortplockad literally means “away-picked”, i.e. “cleared away / removed”.
Why is it tallriken and not den tallriken the way English says “the plate”?