Word
Vi bor inte i staden, utan på landet.
Meaning
We do not live in the city, but rather in the country.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Vi bor inte i staden, utan på landet.
Why do we use utan here instead of men for "but"?
In Swedish, utan means "but rather" or "instead." You use it when you want to correct a negative statement. Because the first part of the sentence says where we do not live (inte i staden), we use utan to introduce the correct place. If you used men, it would sound like you were adding a separate contrasting fact rather than correcting the location directly.
Why does the preposition change from i for the city to på for the country?
Prepositions rarely translate perfectly! In Swedish, you generally use i (in) for cities and towns because you are considered to be inside their borders. However, for the countryside, rural areas, and islands, Swedish uses på (on). It is highly recommended to memorize på landet as a fixed phrase.
Why are staden and landet in their definite forms here?
Just like in English where we say "in the city" or "in the country," Swedish uses the definite form to talk about these general living environments rather than one specific town. The en-word stad becomes staden, and the ett-word land becomes landet.
Could I drop the second preposition and just say utan landet?