Breakdown of Jag har aldrig haft en sådan jacka.
jag
I
en
a, an (common)
ha
to have
aldrig
never
jackan
the jacket
sådan
such, such a (sådant, sådana)
Questions & Answers about Jag har aldrig haft en sådan jacka.
In English we say "such a jacket". Why does the Swedish sentence put en before sådan?
In Swedish, the word order for this phrase is the exact opposite of English. You treat sådan like a normal adjective, so the article comes first: en sådan jacka (literally "a such jacket").
Why is it sådan here, and not sådant or sådana?
Sådan changes its ending to match the noun it describes, just like an adjective. Because jacka is an en-word and it is singular (en jacka), we use the basic form sådan. If it were an ett-word, it would be ett sådant, and for plurals it would be sådana.
Why is aldrig placed between har and haft?
Aldrig (never) is a sentence adverb. In a main clause, sentence adverbs always go right after the first verb. Here, the first verb is the helper verb har, so aldrig steps in right before the main verb haft.
Why is the word for "had" haft and not hade?
Because this sentence uses the present perfect tense ("have had"), which is formed with the helper verb har plus the supine form of the main verb. The supine form of att ha (to have) is haft. You would use hade (the past tense) if you were just saying "I had" (jag hade) without har.
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