Breakdown of Jag säger att jag inte har bråttom, eftersom jag inte vill bli stressad.
Questions & Answers about Jag säger att jag inte har bråttom, eftersom jag inte vill bli stressad.
Att introduces a subordinate clause that functions as the object (the “content”) of säger.
So Jag säger att … = “I say (that) …”. In Swedish, you very often keep att in writing and in careful speech, more often than English keeps “that”.
It’s repeated because the clause after att is its own clause with its own subject. Swedish generally requires an explicit subject in finite clauses.
You normally can’t drop the second jag the way some languages do.
In a main clause, Swedish has verb-second (V2) word order, and inte usually comes after the finite verb: Jag har inte ….
But in a subordinate clause (like after att), the negation typically comes before the finite verb: … att jag inte har ….
So this sentence shows the common pattern: subordinate clause = subject + inte + verb.
Ha bråttom is an idiom meaning “to be in a hurry / to be rushed.”
Literally it’s like “to have hurry,” but you should learn it as a fixed expression:
- Jag har bråttom. = “I’m in a hurry.”
- Jag har inte bråttom. = “I’m not in a hurry.”
Yes. Eftersom means because/since and introduces a reason clause:
- …, eftersom jag inte vill … = “…, because I don’t want …”
För att usually means in order to and is followed by an infinitive phrase, not a finite clause:
- … för att inte bli stressad. = “... in order not to get stressed.”
Both can be possible depending on meaning, but eftersom is the straightforward “because.”
Same subordinate-clause rule as after att: in subordinate clauses, inte generally comes before the finite verb.
So you get eftersom jag inte vill …, not eftersom jag vill inte ….
Bli + adjective commonly means “to become / to get + adjective.”
So bli stressad = “get stressed / become stressed.”
It’s related to passive in form because bli is also used to form the bli-passive (e.g., bli stoppad = “be stopped”), but here stressad functions naturally as an adjective meaning someone’s state.
Stressad agrees with the subject in gender/number in some contexts, but after bli it’s typically the default adjective form for a person (jag).
You would change it mainly for neuter or plural subjects:
- Det blir stressat (less common in this meaning; more like “it gets hectic/stressed” depending on context)
- De blir stressade = “They get stressed.”
For jag, stressad is the normal choice.
That changes the meaning.
- inte vill bli stressad = “don’t want to get stressed” (avoid becoming stressed)
- inte är stressad = “am not stressed” (current state)
Your original sentence is about avoiding stress as a result of being in a hurry.
In Swedish, a comma before a subordinate clause is optional and style-dependent. Many writers include it to make the sentence easier to read, especially when the clause is non-essential or longer:
- …, eftersom … is common and clear.
You will also see it without a comma.
A very common spoken variant is to drop att sometimes and/or shorten the structure:
- Jag säger att jag inte har bråttom, för jag vill inte bli stressad.
Using för (“because/for”) is frequent in speech.
But the original is fully natural and a bit more formal/explicit.
After modal verbs like vill, kan, ska, måste, Swedish uses a bare infinitive (no att):
- jag vill bli … (not jag vill att bli …)
Att is used with many other verbs, but modals take the infinitive directly.