Barnet börjar nästan gråta när nyheterna är för allvarliga.

The child almost starts to cry when the news is too serious.

Breakdown of Barnet börjar nästan gråta när nyheterna är för allvarliga.

• vara: to be
• när: when
• barnet: the child
• börja: to start
• nästan: almost
• för: too
• nyheten: the news
• allvarlig: serious
• gråta: to cry

Questions & Answers about Barnet börjar nästan gråta när nyheterna är för allvarliga.

Why is it barnet and not just barn at the beginning?

Barn means child in general, without specifying which one (indefinite form).
Barnet means the child (definite form).

In Swedish, you normally mark definiteness by adding an ending:

• barn = a / any child
• barnet = the child

So the sentence is talking about a specific child, not children in general.

Why is the adverb in the middle: börjar nästan gråta and not, for example, nästan börjar gråta or börjar gråta nästan?

In Swedish, sentence adverbs like nästan usually come after the first verb in a clause when there are two verbs:

• börjar nästan gråta = literally “begins almost cry”

Here, börjar is the conjugated verb, and gråta is the infinitive, so nästan goes between them.

Other positions are possible, but they change the emphasis:

• nästan börjar gråta – almost begins to cry (focus on the beginning, not the crying)
• börjar gråta nästan – sounds odd or very marked; could be used only in special, emphatic contexts.

The neutral, natural choice here is börjar nästan gråta.

Why is there no att before gråta? Could I say börjar att gråta?

With verbs like börja (begin), sluta (stop), fortsätta (continue), it’s very common and fully correct to skip “att” before the infinitive:

• börjar gråta – begin to cry
• börjar att gråta – also grammatically correct

In modern spoken and written Swedish, börjar gråta (without att) is more natural and frequent. Börjar att gråta can sound a bit more formal or old-fashioned, but it’s not wrong.

Why is it nyheterna and not just nyheter if the English is “the news”?

English “news” is grammatically singular and uncountable, but Swedish nyheter is a countable plural noun:

• en nyhet = a piece of news / a news item
• nyheter = (some) news / news (plural)
• nyheterna = the news (literally: the news-items)

So Swedish uses the definite plural form (-na / -erna ending):

• nyheterna = “the news” in English.

Why does the adjective look plural: för allvarliga and not för allvarlig?

The adjective has to agree in number and definiteness with the noun it describes.

• Noun: nyheterna – definite plural
• Adjective: allvarliga – plural form

Patterns:

• en allvarlig nyhet – a serious piece of news
• allvarliga nyheter – serious news (plural, indefinite)
• de allvarliga nyheterna – the serious news (full noun phrase)

In the sentence, it’s a predicate adjective after är:

• nyheterna är (för) allvarliga
  → plural subject → adjective in -a form: allvarliga.

What does för mean in för allvarliga? Is it the same as English “for”?

Here, för does not mean “for”. It means “too” in the sense of excessively:

• för allvarliga = too serious
• för högt = too high
• för mycket = too much

When för means “for” (preposition), it appears before a noun or pronoun:

• Det är svårt för barnet. – It is difficult for the child.

In för allvarliga, it’s functioning as an adverb of degree: too.

Why is the word order när nyheterna är för allvarliga and not something like när är nyheterna för allvarliga?

After när (“when”) in a subordinate clause, Swedish uses subject–verb order, not verb-second like in a main clause.

• Main clause (declarative): Nyheterna är för allvarliga. (subject–verb)
• Main clause (yes/no question): Är nyheterna för allvarliga? (verb–subject)
• Subordinate clause: … när nyheterna är för allvarliga. (subject–verb)

So när nyheterna är för allvarliga is correct.
*när är nyheterna för allvarliga would sound like an incorrect question form embedded in the sentence.

Could I use blir instead of är and say när nyheterna blir för allvarliga? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• när nyheterna är för allvarliga
• när nyheterna blir för allvarliga

The nuance:

• är – focuses on the state: when the news is (already) too serious.
• blir – focuses on the change: when the news becomes too serious (at the point where it crosses the line).

Both are natural; är is a bit more static, blir a bit more dynamic.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “to” before gråta, like in English “to cry”?

In Swedish, the infinitive marker is att, but it is:

1. Often optional after certain verbs (like börja, sluta, vilja, kunna):

   • börjar gråta (common)
   • börjar att gråta (also correct)

2. Completely absent in dictionary forms:

   • att gråta = to cry (dictionary form)
   • gråta = cry (bare infinitive, often used after another verb)

Here, gråta is in the infinitive, and att is simply omitted because börja allows that.

Is nästan always placed between two verbs like this?

Nästan (almost) is fairly flexible, but there are common patterns:

• With one verb: usually before the verb
  
  • Barnet nästan gråter. – The child is almost crying.
• With two verbs (auxiliary + infinitive): after the conjugated verb
  
  • Barnet börjar nästan gråta.

It can move for emphasis or style, but the safest neutral rule is:

Put nästan after the first/finite verb in the clause.

Why is the tense present (börjar, är) if we might translate it with “whenever the news is too serious”?

Swedish present tense is used both for:

1. Actions happening right now
2. General truths, habits, repeated actions

In this sentence, it describes a habitual reaction:

• Whenever the news is too serious, the child almost starts crying.

Swedish uses present for that kind of general situation, just like English does in “The child almost starts crying when…”. There’s no need for a special tense; plain present works.

Is barnet grammatically masculine, feminine, or something else? Does that affect anything here?

Barn is a neuter noun in Swedish (it uses the article ett):

• ett barn – a child
• barnet – the child

Being neuter affects:

• The article: ett barn, not en barn
• Some adjective forms and pronouns in other contexts

But in this particular sentence, you don’t see any adjective directly agreeing with barnet, so its gender doesn’t change the forms you see here. The rest of the grammar is driven mainly by nyheterna (plural) in the second half of the sentence.