Breakdown of I mars vill jag börja en ny kurs i svenska.
Questions & Answers about I mars vill jag börja en ny kurs i svenska.
Why does the sentence begin with I mars?
Swedish often puts a time expression first when the speaker wants to set the scene or emphasize when something will happen.
So:
- I mars vill jag börja en ny kurs i svenska. = emphasis on In March
- Jag vill börja en ny kurs i svenska i mars. = more neutral, starting with I want...
Both are grammatical. The version with I mars first sounds very natural.
Why is it vill jag and not jag vill after I mars?
This is because Swedish follows the V2 rule in main clauses. V2 means the finite verb must come in the second position.
In this sentence:
- 1st position: I mars
- 2nd position: vill
- then the subject: jag
So:
- I mars vill jag börja... ✓
- I mars jag vill börja... ✗
This is one of the most important word-order rules in Swedish.
Why is it i mars? Does i really mean in here?
Yes. With months, Swedish normally uses i.
Examples:
- i mars = in March
- i april = in April
- i december = in December
So this works much like English in March.
Why is it börja and not börjar?
Because börja comes after vill, and after vill you use the infinitive form of the verb.
So:
- vill = want
- börja = to begin / begin
This is the same pattern as in English:
- I want to begin
In Swedish, modal verbs like vill, kan, måste, ska are followed by the bare infinitive:
- Jag vill börja
- Jag kan börja
- Jag måste börja
Not börjar.
Why is it en ny kurs?
Because kurs is an en-word in Swedish.
That affects both the article and the adjective:
- en = the article for common-gender nouns
- ny = the adjective form used with an en-word in singular indefinite form
So:
- en ny kurs = a new course
Compare:
- en ny bok
- en ny stol
If the noun were an ett-word, the adjective would usually change:
- ett nytt hus
But kurs is en kurs, so en ny kurs is correct.
Why is it a new course and not the new course?
Because en is the indefinite article, meaning a/an.
So:
- en ny kurs = a new course
- den nya kursen = the new course
Here the speaker is not talking about one specific already-known course, just some new course.
What is svenska here? Is it an adjective or a noun?
Here, svenska is a noun meaning the Swedish language.
So en kurs i svenska means:
- a course in Swedish
- a Swedish-language course, in the sense of studying the language itself
Swedish language names often look the same as adjectives, so context matters.
For example:
- svenska = Swedish / the Swedish language
- en svensk bok = a Swedish book
In your sentence, svenska means the language.
Why is it en kurs i svenska and not en kurs på svenska?
This is an important distinction.
- en kurs i svenska = a course in Swedish as a subject
- You are studying the Swedish language.
- en kurs på svenska = a course taught in Swedish
- The language of instruction is Swedish.
So in your sentence, i svenska is correct because it means the subject being studied is Swedish.
Can I also say Jag vill börja en ny kurs i svenska i mars?
Yes, absolutely. That is also correct.
Compare:
- I mars vill jag börja en ny kurs i svenska.
- Jag vill börja en ny kurs i svenska i mars.
The difference is mainly emphasis:
- I mars... puts focus on the time
- Jag vill... puts focus on the speaker’s wish
Both are natural Swedish.
Why are mars and svenska not capitalized?
Because in Swedish, months and languages are normally written with lower-case letters.
So:
- mars not Mars
- svenska not Svenska
This is different from English, where March and Swedish are capitalized.
Should it be börja en kurs or börja på en kurs?
Both can be used, and learners often notice both patterns.
- börja en kurs = begin a course
- börja på en kurs = start taking a course
In everyday Swedish, börja på en kurs is very common. But börja en ny kurs is also possible and natural.
So your sentence is fine as it is. A slightly different but also very natural version would be:
- I mars vill jag börja på en ny kurs i svenska.
The meaning is almost the same.
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