Questions & Answers about Ursäkta, vad gör du?
Since this lesson is about imperatives, why does ursäkta end in an 'a'? I thought we drop the ending to make a command.
The imperative is formed by using the verb's shortest form, called the stem. For verbs in the largest verb group in Swedish (Group 1), the stem naturally ends in an -a. Since the dictionary form is ursäkta (to excuse), the stem and the imperative form are also exactly the same: ursäkta.
The translation says 'Excuse me', but where is the word for 'me' in the Swedish sentence?
You can absolutely say ursäkta mig (excuse me), but in everyday Swedish, the mig is very commonly dropped. Just saying ursäkta by itself acts as a polite set phrase, much like saying 'Pardon!' in English.
Why is there no word for 'are' in vad gör du?
Swedish does not have a continuous '-ing' tense like English does. The single present tense verb gör means both 'do' and 'are doing'. Because of this, vad gör du translates literally to 'what do you?', which is how Swedes say 'what are you doing?'.
Why is the word order gör du instead of du gör?
This is a great reminder of the 'V2 rule'. In Swedish sentences, the verb wants to be in the second position. Because this question starts with the question word vad (what) in position one, the verb gör (do) must take position two. This forces the subject du (you) to swap places and come after the verb.
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