Breakdown of Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
Questions & Answers about Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
Because this is an indirect question, not a direct question.
- A direct question in Swedish takes a question mark and usually has question word order:
Vad betyder den starka känslan i hjärtat? – What does the strong feeling in (the) heart mean? - An indirect question is embedded inside another clause (here: Hon undrar … – She wonders …), and the whole sentence is a statement, so it ends with a period:
- Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
In indirect questions you do not use question mark intonation or punctuation in Swedish.
In Swedish:
- In a direct question, the verb comes right after the question word:
- Vad betyder den starka känslan i hjärtat?
- In an indirect question (after verbs like undrar, vet, frågar sig, tänker på), the clause behaves like a subordinate clause:
- Question word (vad)
- then the subject (den starka känslan i hjärtat)
- then the verb (betyder)
So the pattern is:
Hon undrar [vad + subject + verb …]
Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
Yes, it’s the same question word vad (“what”), but it’s used to introduce an indirect question clause.
- In Vad heter du?, vad is a direct question word.
- In Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder, vad works like English “what” in:
- She wonders what the strong feeling in her heart means.
So it:
- Refers to the meaning of the feeling.
- Introduces a subordinate clause (an embedded question) rather than a stand‑alone question.
Yes, this is the famous “double definiteness” rule in Swedish, and it’s normal and required in this structure.
For a definite noun with an adjective, Swedish usually needs:
den / det / de + adjective + definite noun
Examples:
- den nya bilen – the new car
(bil → bilen) - den starka känslan – the strong feeling
(känsla → känslan)
You cannot say:
- ✗ starka känslan, ✗ den stark känsla here.
You must have:
- a definite article (den)
- plus the definite ending on the noun (-n in känslan)
when there’s an adjective in front.
So den starka känslan is grammatically the normal way to say “the strong feeling”.
Because känsla is an en-word (common gender), not an ett-word.
- en känsla – a feeling
- känslan – the feeling
- With an adjective in the definite form: den starka känslan
For ett-words you would use det instead:
- ett hjärta – a heart
- hjärtat – the heart
- det starka hjärtat – the strong heart
So:
- den goes with en-words (common gender)
- det goes with ett-words (neuter)
Adjective endings in Swedish change with definiteness and number.
- Indefinite singular en-word: en stark känsla – a strong feeling
- Indefinite singular ett-word: ett starkt hjärta – a strong heart
- Definite singular (any gender) with article den/det/de:
den starka känslan, det starka hjärtat - Plural (definite or indefinite): starka känslor – strong feelings
So when the noun is definite and has den/det in front, the adjective takes the -a ending:
den starka känslan (not ✗ den stark känsla)
No, that would be ungrammatical in standard Swedish.
When you have:
- an adjective before a definite noun, you must use the double definiteness structure:
den starka känslan
det stora huset
de långa dagarna
Without den, Swedish reads starka känslan as incorrect; the language expects either:
- en stark känsla (indefinite – a strong feeling)
or - den starka känslan (definite – the strong feeling)
Because here “the heart” is meant, not just “a heart”.
- ett hjärta – a heart (indefinite)
- hjärtat – the heart (definite)
The -t is the definite ending for this ett-word:
- ett hjärta → hjärtat
- ett hus → huset
- ett brev → brevet
In the phrase i hjärtat, Swedish usually means “in (the) heart”, and in context that’s naturally understood as her own heart.
The preposition i means “in / inside”, which fits the metaphorical idea of an internal feeling.
- i hjärtat – in the heart
(inside, emotionally or physically) - på hjärtat – literally on the heart (would sound odd here; might be used physically, like something lying on top of a heart in a medical context, but that’s very different.)
For feelings and emotions located “in one’s heart”, Swedish uses i:
- en värme i hjärtat – a warmth in (one’s) heart
- en oro i hjärtat – an anxiety in (one’s) heart
Swedish often uses a bare definite noun for body parts and similar things when it’s clear they belong to the subject.
- Hon har ont i huvudet. – Her head hurts / She has a headache.
- Han tvättar händerna. – He washes his hands.
The possessor is understood from context (the subject). So:
- Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
is naturally interpreted as
She wonders what the strong feeling in her heart means.
If you say:
- i sitt hjärta – emphasizes that it is her own heart (reflexive, tied to the subject).
- i hennes hjärta – often sounds more contrastive, like “in her heart (not someone else’s)”, or can refer to another female’s heart depending on context.
So i hjärtat is the most neutral and idiomatic here.
Betyda and mena correspond to two different uses of “mean” in English.
betyda – what a word, symbol, event, or feeling signifies:
- Vad betyder det här ordet? – What does this word mean?
- Vad betyder den starka känslan i hjärtat? – What does the strong feeling in (her) heart mean? / What is its significance?
mena – what a person intends to say or communicate:
- Vad menar du? – What do you mean? (What are you trying to say?)
A feeling doesn’t “intend” anything in a linguistic sense; it has a significance. So:
- betyder is the correct and natural choice here.
- ✗ Vad menar den starka känslan i hjärtat? would sound wrong or at least very odd.
They are not interchangeable:
Hon undrar – She wonders / She is wondering
- This is about her inner thoughts or curiosity.
- She might not be speaking to anyone.
Hon frågar – She asks
- This normally implies she is asking someone a question.
So:
- Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
– She is wondering to herself about the meaning.
If you want “She asks what the strong feeling in her heart means”, you’d usually specify whom she asks:
- Hon frågar läkaren vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
– She asks the doctor what the strong feeling in her heart means.
The present tense betyder is normal because Swedish often uses the present for:
- current, general, or timeless meanings
- dictionary-like meaning or ongoing significance
Here, the feeling’s meaning is treated as something that generally/now has a certain significance, so:
- Hon undrar vad den starka känslan i hjärtat betyder.
– She wonders what it means (now / in general).
You could say betydde in a specific past context:
- Igår kände hon en stark känsla i hjärtat och undrade vad den betydde.
– Yesterday she felt a strong feeling in her heart and wondered what it meant.
But in the original, present tense betyder is the natural default.