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En vanlig kväll sitter vi i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv.

En vanlig kväll sitter vi i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv.
On an ordinary evening we sit in the living room and watch TV.
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Questions & Answers about En vanlig kväll sitter vi i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv.

Why does the sentence start with En vanlig kväll instead of På en vanlig kväll like “On a normal evening”?

Swedish doesn’t always need a preposition like på for time expressions where English uses on.

  • En vanlig kväll literally means “an ordinary evening”, but in this position it functions as a time adverbial: “on an ordinary evening / on a typical evening”.
  • It’s very natural in Swedish to say:
    • En dag gick jag till stan. – One day I went to town.
    • En kväll satt vi och pratade. – One evening we sat and talked.

You can say På en vanlig kväll sitter vi…, but:

  • It’s less common in this kind of general, habitual statement.
  • It may sound a bit heavier or more specific, like you are contrasting this with some other type of evening.

So En vanlig kväll… is the standard, natural way to start this kind of sentence in Swedish.

Why is it sitter vi and not vi sitter? In English we say “we sit”, so the verb comes after the subject.

This is because of the verb-second (V2) rule in Swedish main clauses.

  • In a normal statement, the finite verb (here: sitter) must be in second position in the sentence.
  • If the subject comes first, then subject + verb looks like English:
    • Vi sitter i vardagsrummet. – We sit/are sitting in the living room.

  • But if you put anything else first (time, place, adverb), the verb must move to second position and the subject comes after it:

    • En vanlig kväll (1st element: time phrase)
      sitter (2nd element: verb)
      vi (3rd element: subject)
      i vardagsrummet…

More examples:

  • Idag äter vi pasta. – Today we are eating pasta.
  • På sommaren arbetar jag mindre. – In the summer I work less.

So sitter vi is the correct order because En vanlig kväll is placed first.

Does sitter mean “sit” or “are sitting”? Why is there no special “-ing” form like in English?

Swedish does not have a separate continuous “-ing” tense like English. The simple present in Swedish covers both:

  • Vi sitter i vardagsrummet.
    • We sit in the living room. (habit, general fact)
    • We are sitting in the living room. (right now)

In this sentence:

  • En vanlig kväll sitter vi i vardagsrummet…
    means something like:
    • On an ordinary evening, we (usually) sit in the living room and watch TV.

So:

  • One Swedish form sitter can correspond to English sit, are sitting, or usually sit, depending on context.

If you really want to stress habit, you can also use:

  • Brukar:
    En vanlig kväll brukar vi sitta i vardagsrummet och titta på tv.
    – On an ordinary evening, we usually sit in the living room and watch TV.
Why is it i vardagsrummet and not just i vardagsrum?

Because Swedish uses the definite form here: vardagsrummet = “the living room.”

  • Base noun: ett vardagsrum – a living room
    (neuter noun, “ett”-word)
  • Definite singular: vardagsrummet – the living room
    (add -et to the end)

In this context you’re talking about your usual, specific living room, not living rooms in general, so the definite form is natural:

  • Vi sitter i vardagsrummet. – We sit in the living room. (our living room)

Compare:

  • Jag är i skolan. – I am at school. (definite in Swedish)
  • Hon är i köket. – She is in the kitchen.

So i vardagsrummet literally is “in the living room.”
i vardagsrum would sound like “in living rooms” or “in a living room” in a very abstract or odd way here.

Why do we use i in i vardagsrummet but på in tittar på tv?

Because they are different kinds of phrases:

  1. i vardagsrummet

    • i = in/inside
    • Used for being inside a room, building, space:
      • i köket – in the kitchen
      • i skolan – at/in school
      • i vardagsrummet – in the living room

  2. tittar på tv

    • The verb titta (“to look”) normally takes på when you are looking/watching something specific:
      • titta på tv – watch TV
      • titta på film – watch a film
      • titta på fåglar – look at birds

So:

  • i goes with location (in the room),
  • på goes with titta when you watch something.
What exactly is vardagsrummet made of? Why is there an -et at the end?

Vardagsrummet is a compound and a definite form:

  1. vardag – weekday / everyday life

  2. rum – room
    → vardagsrum – living room (literally: “everyday room”)

  3. ett vardagsrum – a living room
  4. vardagsrummet – the living room

For most ett-words, you form the definite singular by adding -et:

  • ett hus → huset – a house → the house
  • ett rum → rummet – a room → the room
  • ett vardagsrum → vardagsrummet – a living room → the living room

So vardagsrummet = vardagsrum + et.

Why is it tittar på tv and not just tittar tv?

In Swedish, when you “watch” something using titta, you normally must add the preposition på:

  • titta på tv – watch TV
  • titta på en film – watch a film
  • titta på matchen – watch the match
  • titta på honom – look at him

Without på, titta just means “look (in general)”:

  • Titta! – Look!
  • Titta här. – Look here.

So tittar på tv is the natural way to say “watch TV” in Swedish.
Saying tittar tv is wrong in standard Swedish.

Why is tv written in lower case and without an article?

A couple of points:

  1. Capitalization

    • Traditionally, you might see TV (like English).
    • Nowadays, tv (lowercase) is very common in everyday writing.
    • You may also see teve (spelled-out), especially in more old‑fashioned or very careful writing.

  2. No article

    • In Swedish, when you talk about watching television in general, you normally don’t use an article:
      • titta på tv – watch TV
      • lyssna på radio – listen to the radio
    • If you mean the physical device, you use an article:
      • en tv / en teve – a TV set
      • Tv:n är trasig. – The TV (set) is broken.

So in tittar på tv, tv is treated like an uncountable medium (television as a service), not a physical object.

What is the difference between titta på, se på, and kolla på when talking about TV?

All three can be used to talk about watching something, but they differ slightly in style and nuance:

  • titta på

    • Very common and neutral.
    • Works for most situations:
      Vi tittar på tv. – We’re watching TV.

  • se på

    • Also means “watch/see”.
    • Often slightly more formal or just a bit less colloquial:
      • Jag ser på nyheterna. – I’m watching the news.
    • In many contexts, se på and titta på are interchangeable.

  • kolla på

    • More informal/colloquial, like “check out / watch”:
      • Vi ska kolla på en serie. – We’re going to watch a series.
    • Very common in spoken Swedish.

In your sentence, tittar på tv is a neutral, standard choice.

Why is it En vanlig kväll with en, and how is the adjective vanlig behaving here?

Because kväll is a common gender noun (an “en‑word”) and it’s in the indefinite singular:

  • en kväll – an evening
  • kvällen – the evening
  • kvällar – evenings
  • kvällarna – the evenings

Adjectives before indefinite singular en‑words take the basic form:

  • en vanlig kväll – an ordinary evening
  • en stor bil – a big car
  • en gammal vän – an old friend

If you change number or definiteness, the adjective changes:

  • den vanliga kvällen – the ordinary evening
  • vanliga kvällar – ordinary evenings
  • de vanliga kvällarna – the ordinary evenings

So En vanlig kväll is “an ordinary evening”, indefinite singular, and vanlig is in its basic form to match en kväll.

How would you say “On ordinary evenings we sit in the living room and watch TV” in the plural?

A natural way to make it plural is:

  • Vanliga kvällar sitter vi i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv.
    – On ordinary evenings we sit in the living room and watch TV.

Notes:

  • Vanliga kvällar = “ordinary evenings” (indefinite plural)
  • You could also say:
    • På vanliga kvällar sitter vi…
      This includes på and is also correct; it just makes the time phrase a bit more explicit.

Both are fine; Vanliga kvällar sitter vi… is slightly more compact and very natural.

What nuance does vanlig add here? Is it like “normal”, “typical”, or “boring”?

Vanlig usually means ordinary / normal / usual. In En vanlig kväll sitter vi…, it suggests:

  • “This is what we normally do on a typical evening.”
  • It doesn’t automatically mean “boring”, though in some contexts it can imply something a bit unremarkable.

Compare:

  • En vanlig dag går jag till jobbet. – On a normal day I go to work.
  • Det är en helt vanlig familj. – It is a completely ordinary family.

If you wanted to stress “typical for us”, you could also say:

  • En typisk kväll för oss sitter vi i vardagsrummet…
    but En vanlig kväll… is more neutral and idiomatic here.
Can I move En vanlig kväll to the end of the sentence? Would that change the meaning?

You can move it, but the word order and emphasis change:

  1. Original (time phrase first, neutral emphasis on the whole routine):

    • En vanlig kväll sitter vi i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv.

  2. Time phrase last:

    • Vi sitter i vardagsrummet och tittar på tv en vanlig kväll.

    This sounds more like you’re describing what an ordinary evening is like, as if contrasting:

    • “On an ordinary evening we are in the living room watching TV (as opposed to some other kind of evening).”

Also note:

  • When En vanlig kväll is first, you must have sitter vi (V2 rule).
  • When Vi is first, you say Vi sitter.

Both are grammatical, but the given sentence with En vanlig kväll first is the most typical way to describe a habitual routine.