Working on texts usually involves a lot of editing. Let's look at how to talk about editing a draft (ett utkast).
| The author edited the draft both yesterday and this morning. | Författaren redigerade utkastet både igår och i morse. |
Doing it over with "om"
In Swedish, you express "re-doing" something by adding the particle om immediately after the verb. It functions just like the English prefix "re-". When speaking, make sure to stress the word om.
- skriva (write) → skriva om (rewrite)
- läsa (read) → läsa om (reread)
| Can you rewrite the entire draft without complaining? | Kan du skriva om hela utkastet utan att klaga? |
| She reread the manuscript to understand the theory. | Hon läste om manuset för att förstå teorin. |
You can apply this to other verbs too, such as göra (to do) to form göra om (redo) — useful if a specific paragraph (ett stycke) isn't quite right.
| This paragraph is bad, so you must redo it. | Det här stycket är dåligt, så du måste göra om det. |
Moving forward with "vidare"
To express that an action continues, Swedish uses the particle vidare, which translates to "further" or "onward". Placed after a verb, it simply means "keep doing" or "continue doing" that action.
- arbeta (work) → arbeta vidare (continue working)
- skriva (write) → skriva vidare (continue writing)
- tänka (think) → tänka vidare (continue thinking)
| We must continue working on the manuscript tomorrow. | Vi måste arbeta vidare med manuset imorgon. |
You will often mix these two aspectual particles: taking a step back to review things again (om), before continuing your work (vidare).
| After the break, we will reread the chapter and continue writing. | Efter pausen ska vi läsa om kapitlet och skriva vidare. |
| I need to continue thinking about the matter before I rewrite the text. | Jag behöver tänka vidare på saken innan jag skriver om texten. |
