Breakdown of Nyheten om spöket är inte falsk, utan sann.
vara
to be
inte
not
om
about
spöket
the ghost
nyheten
the news
falsk
false
utan
but rather
sann
true
Questions & Answers about Nyheten om spöket är inte falsk, utan sann.
Why do we use utan instead of men for "but" here?
utan means "but rather" or "but instead." You use it to directly contradict and correct a negative statement (here, inte falsk). If you used men, the regular word for "but," it would just add contrasting information. When replacing a "not X" with a "Y," you must use utan.
In English, "news" is generally uncountable. How does it work in Swedish with nyheten?
In Swedish, news is a regular countable noun: en nyhet (a piece of news). Here it is in the singular definite form nyheten (the news). If you were talking about the evening news broadcast or multiple news items, you would use the plural definite form nyheterna.
Why don't the adjectives falsk and sann end in -t to match spöket?
Because they describe the main subject of the sentence, nyheten, not the noun right next to them (spöket). Since nyhet is a singular en-word, the adjectives take their basic forms: falsk and sann.
Why does spöke become spöket to mean "the ghost"?
spöke is an ett-word that ends in a vowel (ett spöke). To make this specific group of nouns definite, you simply add a -t to the end, resulting in spöket.
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