Breakdown of Trädet var lågt i fjol, men nu är det högre.
vara
to be
det
it (neuter)
nu
now
i
in
trädet
the tree
men
but
hög
high / loudly
fjol
last year (used in 'i fjol')
låg
low
Questions & Answers about Trädet var lågt i fjol, men nu är det högre.
Why is the comparative of high högre instead of "högare"?
The base adjective for "high" or "tall" is hög. Most Swedish adjectives add -are to compare (like roligare), but a special group of short adjectives adds just -re and often changes their vowel (a stem vowel mutation). Because hög already has an ö, it doesn't need to mutate. However, its opposite låg (low) mutates its vowel to become lägre (lower)!
Why does lågt have a -t at the end?
Adjectives in Swedish must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because trädet (the tree) comes from an ett word (ett träd), the base adjective låg gets the neuter -t ending to become lågt.
The translation says "last year", but I don't see the word for year (år). What is i fjol?
I fjol is a very common fixed expression that specifically means "last year". You can also say förra året (literally "the previous year"), but Swedes use i fjol all the time, so it is a great phrase to memorize!
Why is the word order nu är det instead of "nu det är"?
This is a great reminder of the Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule! In a main clause, the verb must be the second piece of information. After the conjunction men (but), the word nu (now) takes the first spot in the new clause. Therefore, the verb är must come next, pushing the subject det to the third spot.
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