Breakdown of Min släkting levde ett bra liv, men han gifte sig aldrig.
ett
a, an (neuter)
han
he
bra
good / well
aldrig
never
Questions & Answers about Min släkting levde ett bra liv, men han gifte sig aldrig.
I learned that bodde means lived. Why does this sentence use levde instead?
Swedish has two common words for "to live". Bo means to reside at a physical location (like an apartment or a city). Leva means to be alive or to experience life. Since the relative experienced a good life rather than just staying at a specific address, we use levde.
Why is there a sig after gifte?
In Swedish, "to get married" is a reflexive verb: gifta sig (literally "to marry oneself"). When used in the past tense with han (he), it becomes gifte sig. The sig is a mandatory part of the verb, so you can't just say han gifte.
Why is the adverb aldrig placed at the very end of the sentence?
In a main clause, adverbs like aldrig (never) usually come right after the verb. Because gifte sig is a reflexive verb, the pronoun sig belongs closely to the verb. The adverb treats them as one block, so aldrig goes right after sig.
Since we are learning about past events, could I use har levt (has lived) instead of levde?