Breakdown of Vittnet nämnde att bilen var svart.
vara
to be
bilen
the car
svart
black
att
that
vittnet
the witness
nämna
to mention
Questions & Answers about Vittnet nämnde att bilen var svart.
In English, we often drop the word "that" and say "The witness mentioned the car was black." Can we drop att in Swedish?
Yes, you can! Just like in English, it is very common in everyday spoken Swedish to drop att and just say Vittnet nämnde bilen var svart. However, keeping att is generally safer in writing because it clearly signals that a subordinate clause is starting.
What is the word order inside this att clause?
A subordinate clause (bisats) follows a very strict rule: the subject comes right after the conjunction. Here, the conjunction att is immediately followed by the subject bilen, and then the verb var.
Why is "the witness" translated as vittnet? Doesn't the definite "the" ending usually look like -en?
The ending -en is for en words (like bilen). "Witness" is an ett word: ett vittne. Because the base word already ends in a vowel, we just add -t to make it definite, giving us vittnet.
Why is the adjective svart and not svartt or svarta?
The adjective svart describes bilen. Because en bil is an en word and we are only talking about one car, the adjective stays in its basic form. If the witness had seen an ett word like ett hus (a house), it would be svartt, and for multiple cars it would be the plural svarta.
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