Saying "Ago" with "för ... sedan"
To talk about how long ago a completed event happened, Swedish uses the phrase för ... sedan (literally "for ... since"). You simply place the amount of time between the two words.
| My paternal grandfather moved to Sweden twenty years ago. | Min farfar flyttade till Sverige för tjugo år sedan. |
| The old relative died five years ago. | Den gamla släktingen dog för fem år sedan. |
Word Order: Starting with Time
Just like with other time expressions, if you start a sentence with the för ... sedan phrase to emphasize the time, the verb must come immediately after it, before the subject. This is the Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule in action.
| A century ago my maternal grandmother lived in the forest. | För ett sekel sedan levde min mormor i skogen. |
Talking About Family History
When discussing ancestry and history, you will often need specific vocabulary to describe relatives, generations, and major life events like getting married (gifta sig).
Notice that Swedish uses highly specific words for grandparents by combining the words for mother (mor) and father (far):
- farfar: father's father (paternal grandfather)
- mormor: mother's mother (maternal grandmother)
- släkten: the extended family
- släktingen: the relative
| The extended family had already moved two generations ago. | Släkten hade redan flyttat för två generationer sedan. |
| My maternal grandmother and her sister got married thirty years ago. | Min mormor och hennes syster gifte sig för trettio år sedan. |
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