Han reser inte till Spanien, utan till Tyskland.
He is not traveling to Spain, but rather to Germany.
Breakdown of Han reser inte till Spanien, utan till Tyskland.
han
he
inte
not
resa
to travel
till
to (direction, destination)
utan
but rather
Tyskland
Germany
Spanien
Spain
Questions & Answers about Han reser inte till Spanien, utan till Tyskland.
Why is utan used here for "but" instead of men?
In Swedish, men is the standard word for "but". However, when the first part of your sentence is negative (like reser inte) and the second part provides the actual alternative, you must use utan. It translates best to "but rather" or "but instead".
I previously learned that utan means "without". Does it have two meanings?
Yes! It is often a preposition meaning "without" (as in kaffe utan mjölk - coffee without milk). But in this sentence, it is a conjunction connecting two ideas. You can easily spot this "but rather" meaning because it almost always comes right after a negative statement containing words like inte.
Could I repeat the subject and verb and say ...utan han reser till Tyskland?
You could, but it sounds a bit clunky. Because utan connects two parallel ideas, you only need to include the parts that are different. Just saying ...utan till Tyskland is much more natural, exactly like saying "...but rather to Germany" in English.
Why do we use till for "to" here instead of att?
Till is a preposition used for physical movement or direction towards a destination (like Spanien or Tyskland). You might be thinking of att, which also translates to "to", but att is only used before verbs (for example, att resa means "to travel").
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