Breakdown of Vi måste jobba i många år.
vi
we
jobba
to work
måste
to have to, must
många
many
i
for (duration)
året
the year
Questions & Answers about Vi måste jobba i många år.
Why does the word år (years) not have a plural ending in this sentence?
År is an ett-word that ends in a consonant (ett år). In Swedish, these nouns belong to the zero plural group (Group 5), meaning they don't change form in the indefinite plural. So, one year is ett år, and many years is många år.
Why is the preposition i used here to mean 'for'?
When you are talking about how long an ongoing action lasts (duration of time), Swedish usually uses the preposition i. To say you are working 'for' many years, you say you are working i många år.
Why is there no att (to) before the verb jobba?
The verb måste (must) is a modal verb. Just like in English where we say 'must work' and not 'must to work', Swedish drops att (to) after these types of verbs. You just follow it directly with the infinitive form of the main verb, which is jobba.
Could I use mycket instead of många here?
No, because år (years) are things you can count. Just like in English, Swedish uses många (many) for countable things and mycket (much) for uncountable things like water, money, or general time.
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