Breakdown of Hämtar flickan sitt paraply?
hämta
to fetch
flickan
the girl
sitt
his/her/its/their own (ett-word)
paraplyet
the umbrella
Questions & Answers about Hämtar flickan sitt paraply?
Why do we use sitt instead of hennes here?
sitt is a reflexive possessive pronoun. It is used because the umbrella belongs to the subject of the sentence, flickan (the girl). It translates to 'her own'. If we used hennes, it would mean she is fetching an umbrella that belongs to a different female!
Why do we use sitt instead of sin or sina?
The reflexive pronoun has to match the gender and number of the object being owned, not the owner. Because paraply (umbrella) is an ett-word (ett paraply), we use the ett-word form sitt. If she were fetching an en-word like en bok (a book), we would use sin bok.
Why does the sentence start with the verb Hämtar?
In Swedish, you create a yes/no question simply by moving the verb to the very beginning of the sentence. Swedish does not use helping words like 'does' or 'do' for questions, so the sentence literally translates to 'Fetches the girl her umbrella?'.
How do we know it means 'the girl' and not just 'a girl'?
In Swedish, 'the' is usually added to the end of the noun as a suffix rather than being a separate word. The base word is en flicka (a girl). By adding -n to the end, it becomes flickan, which means 'the girl'.