Breakdown of Har alla rätten till ett privat liv?
ett
a, an (neuter)
ha
to have
till
to (direction, destination)
alla
all
livet
the life
privat
private
rätten
the right
Questions & Answers about Har alla rätten till ett privat liv?
Why doesn't the Swedish sentence start with a word for "Does"?
Unlike English, Swedish doesn't use auxiliary verbs like "do" or "does" to form questions. Instead, you simply swap the subject (alla) and the verb (har). So, Har alla... literally translates to "Have everyone...".
Why is the preposition till used after rätten here?
In Swedish, when you have a right to a noun (like "a private life"), you use rätten till. If you instead have a right to do an action (a verb), you use rätten att, such as rätten att tala (the right to speak).
Is there a difference between writing ett privat liv as separate words and the compound word ett privatliv?
They mean the same thing. Ett privatliv is a very common compound noun specifically meaning "a personal life" or "privacy". Writing it as two words simply treats privat as a regular adjective describing the noun liv (life). Both are perfectly fine to use here.
The current lesson is about the generic possessive ens (one's). If we changed the subject to man (one), would we use ens privatliv in this sentence?
No, because if the private life belongs to the subject doing the having, you must use the reflexive word sitt. It would be Har man rätten till sitt privatliv?. You only use ens when the owner is not the subject of the sentence, for example: Lagen skyddar ens privatliv (The law protects one's private life).
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