Breakdown of Turisten var i hamnen där utsikten är fantastisk.
vara
to be
i
in
fantastisk
fantastic
turisten
the tourist
där
where (relative)
hamnen
the harbor
utsikten
the view
Questions & Answers about Turisten var i hamnen där utsikten är fantastisk.
Why does the sentence use där for "where" instead of var?
In Swedish, var is a question word used to ask "Where?" (like Var är du?). When you want to connect a place to a description, like "the harbor where...", you must use the relative word där.
The first part of the sentence is in the past tense (var), so why is the second part in the present tense (är)?
The tourist was there in the past (var), but the view is generally and permanently fantastic (är). Swedish mixes tenses just like English does when describing a permanent fact about a place you visited in the past.
Why is the adjective fantastisk instead of fantastiskt?
Adjectives have to match the noun they describe. The noun here is utsikten (the view), which comes from the en-word en utsikt. Therefore, the adjective takes the standard en-word form, which is just the base word fantastisk without an extra -t at the end.
Why does the sentence say i hamnen (in the harbor) instead of just i hamn?
Just like in English, Swedish uses the definite form when talking about a specific place that the listener already knows about. Hamnen is the definite form of the en-word en hamn.
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