Breakdown of Han vann tävlingen när han var ung.
vara
to be
han
he
när
when
vinna
to win
tävlingen
the competition
ung
young
Questions & Answers about Han vann tävlingen när han var ung.
What is the infinitive of vann, and how does it show it belongs to Group 4?
The infinitive is vinna (to win). Group 4 verbs are 'strong' verbs, meaning they do not use endings like -de or -te to form the past tense. Instead, they change their root vowel. Here, the i in vinna changes to a to become vann.
Is var (was) also considered a Group 4 verb?
Vara (to be) is usually just categorized as a completely irregular verb. While it shares the Group 4 feature of having no past tense suffix (changing from the present tense är to var), it does not follow the predictable vowel-change patterns that standard Group 4 verbs use.
Why does the word for competition end in -en here?
The base word is en tävling (a competition). Because the sentence says 'the competition', we need the definite form. For en words ending in a consonant, we add -en to the end, making it tävlingen.
Why is the adjective ung used instead of ungt or unga?
Adjectives in Swedish change to match the noun or pronoun they describe. Here, ung (young) describes han (he). Since han refers to a singular person (which takes the common en-word form), we use the basic form ung. We would use ungt for an ett-word, and unga if the subject were plural.
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