Word
Han brukar klippa gräset på morgonen.
Meaning
He usually cuts the grass in the morning.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Han brukar klippa gräset på morgonen.
han
he
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
morgonen
the morning
bruka
to usually do
Questions & Answers about Han brukar klippa gräset på morgonen.
Why does brukar translate to 'usually' if it is a verb?
Brukar is a special verb that means 'to be in the habit of'. It acts like a helper verb, so it is followed directly by another verb. Brukar klippa literally means 'is in the habit of cutting', which we translate naturally to English as 'usually cuts'.
Why is the second verb klippa instead of the present tense klipper?
Because brukar is already showing the present tense. Verbs like brukar, orkar, and hinner take a bare infinitive (the dictionary form of the verb, without the word att). Therefore, we use the infinitive klippa immediately after it.
Why do we use på morgonen to say 'in the morning'?
To say 'in the morning' for a habitual or recurring action, Swedish uses the preposition på plus the definite noun morgonen. Watch out: if you say i morgon, it means 'tomorrow'!
Why is it gräset and not just gräs?
Just like in English, we say 'cuts the grass' referring to a specific lawn rather than grass in general. Gräs is an ett-word (ett gräs), so it takes the definite suffix -et to become gräset (the grass).