Breakdown of Vad är anledningen till den dåliga servicen?
vara
to be
vad
what
till
to (direction, destination)
den
the (with en-words)
Questions & Answers about Vad är anledningen till den dåliga servicen?
This lesson is about expressing causes with words like eftersom. Why are we looking at the word anledningen?
While eftersom and därför att are conjunctions meaning 'because', anledningen is a noun meaning 'the reason'. Asking Vad är anledningen till... (What is the reason for...) is a common way to ask a question that someone will then answer using those 'because' words.
Why is the preposition till used here to mean 'for'? Shouldn't it be för?
In Swedish, certain nouns pair with specific prepositions. The noun en anledning (a reason) almost always takes the preposition till when you want to say 'the reason for' something. It is best to memorize anledningen till as a fixed chunk.
Why does the sentence say den dåliga servicen instead of just den dåliga service?
This is the Swedish 'double definite' rule in action. When you use a separate definite word like den (the) before an adjective, the noun itself must also have its definite suffix attached to the end of it. So you get the separate word den, the adjective dåliga, and the ending -n on servicen.
Why does the adjective dålig (bad) end in an -a here?