Breakdown of Vi besökte kyrkan på semestern.
vi
we
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
besöka
to visit
kyrkan
the church
semestern
the vacation
Questions & Answers about Vi besökte kyrkan på semestern.
Why does the past tense verb besökte end in -te instead of -de?
Besöka (to visit) is a Group 2b verb. The root of the verb, besök-, ends in the hard sound k. For verbs whose roots end in voiceless consonants (like k, p, s, or t), we add -te to form the past tense instead of the usual -de.
The English translation says 'our vacation', but doesn't semestern just mean 'the vacation'?
Exactly! In Swedish, when it is obvious who something belongs to from the context, we often use the definite form instead of a possessive word like vår (our). Here, på semestern literally means 'on the vacation', but it translates most naturally as 'on our vacation' in English.
Why is the definite form of en semester written as semestern and not semesteren?
When an en-word ends in -er, the extra e is dropped before adding the definite -en ending. This makes the word flow better, giving us semestern instead of the clunky semesteren.
Is på the standard preposition to use with semester?
Yes, på is the correct preposition here. Just like we say 'on vacation' in English, you use på in Swedish to say på semester or på semestern.
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