Kan spelaren dribbla med bollen?

In a Swedish yes/no question, the finite verb comes first.

• Statement: Spelaren kan dribbla med bollen.
• Question: Kan spelaren dribbla med bollen?

So Swedish often forms this kind of question by putting the verb before the subject.

The basic noun is spelare, which means player.

Spelaren is the definite singular form, so it means the player.

Because the word already ends in a vowel, Swedish adds -n to make it definite:

• spelare = player
• spelaren = the player

In Swedish, the definite article is often attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word.

For example:

• spelare = player
• spelaren = the player
• boll = ball
• bollen = the ball

So where English uses a separate word like the, Swedish often uses a suffix.

After modal verbs like kan (can), Swedish uses the bare infinitive, without att.

So:

• kan dribbla = can dribble

Not:

• kan att dribbla

This is similar to English:

• can dribble not
• can to dribble

Kan can sometimes mean either:

• is able to
• may / is allowed to

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is ability. It is asking whether the player is able to dribble with the ball.

No. Swedish verbs do not change form for person the way English sometimes does.

For example:

• jag kan = I can
• du kan = you can
• spelaren kan = the player can
• de kan = they can

So kan stays the same.

Med means with, so med bollen means with the ball.

Here it tells you what the player is dribbling with or controlling while dribbling.

Also, bollen is definite:

• boll = ball
• bollen = the ball

It is a normal Swedish verb, but it is clearly related to English dribble.

Swedish has adapted it to regular verb forms:

• infinitive: dribbla
• present: dribblar
• past: dribblade
• supine: dribblat

So even though it looks familiar to an English speaker, it behaves like an ordinary Swedish verb.

As a statement, it would be:

Spelaren kan dribbla med bollen.

So the meaning stays the same, but the word order changes:

• statement: subject + verb
• yes/no question: verb + subject

In a statement, inte usually comes after the finite verb:

• Spelaren kan inte dribbla med bollen. = The player cannot dribble with the ball.

In a yes/no question, inte usually comes after the subject:

• Kan spelaren inte dribbla med bollen? = Can the player not dribble with the ball?

That placement is very typical in Swedish.