Breakdown of Jag hittade guldet som de letar efter.
jag
I
de
they
hitta
to find
som
who / which / that (relative pronoun)
leta efter
to look for (physical items, everyday)
guldet
the gold
Questions & Answers about Jag hittade guldet som de letar efter.
Why is the preposition efter at the very end of the sentence?
When a relative clause introduced by som (that/which) involves a preposition, the preposition usually goes at the very end of the clause. This is called preposition stranding, and it works exactly the same way as in English: 'that they are looking for' translates perfectly to som de letar efter.
Can I skip som here, just like I can drop 'that' in English?
Yes! Because som is acting as the object of the relative clause (the subject doing the action is de), it can be left out. Saying Jag hittade guldet de letar efter is completely correct and very common in everyday spoken Swedish.
Why is it guldet instead of just guld?
Guld (gold) is an ett-word. Because you found a specific batch of gold (the one they are looking for), it needs the definite ending -et to mean 'the gold'. Even though gold is an uncountable material, Swedish still uses the definite form when referring to a specific amount of it.
The verb letar means 'search'. Do I always need efter?
Yes, when you are naming the object you want to find, you need the preposition efter. Letar on its own just describes the general action of searching, while letar efter specifically means 'looking for' or 'searching for' something.
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