Breakdown of Bodde kvinnan ensam på gården?
kvinnan
the woman
bo
to live
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
gården
the farm
Questions & Answers about Bodde kvinnan ensam på gården?
How do we form the past tense for a short verb like bo?
Bo belongs to Group 3 verbs, which are short verbs that end in a vowel. To make them past tense (preteritum), you just add -dde to the end. So bo (to live) becomes bodde (lived).
The English translation says "Did the woman live", but there is no word for "did" in Swedish. Why?
Swedish doesn't use "do" or "did" as helper verbs to ask questions. Instead, it simply starts the sentence with the main verb. Bodde kvinnan literally means "Lived the woman".
Why is the adjective ensam (alone) in this specific form?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe. Ensam describes kvinnan (the woman), which is a singular en-word. If it were describing an ett-word, it would be ensamt, and for plural it would be ensamma.
Why does the sentence use gården instead of just gård?
Gården is the definite form of en gård (a farm or courtyard), meaning "the farm". Because the sentence is about a specific farm, we add the definite suffix -en to the end of the noun.