Breakdown of Pojken har väntat i kön i en timme.
en
a, an (common)
pojken
the boy
ha
to have
i
for (duration)
vänta
to wait / to expect (a baby)
timmen
the hour
kön
the queue
Questions & Answers about Pojken har väntat i kön i en timme.
Why does the sentence use i en timme instead of på en timme to say "for an hour"?
In Swedish, you use i to describe the duration of an ongoing, continuous action (like waiting or sleeping). You use på to say how long it takes to actually complete a task (like "I read the book in an hour" -> på en timme), or in negative sentences to say how long it has been since something last happened.
I thought kön meant "the gender" or "the sex". Why does it mean "the queue" here?
It depends on the root word, which have different genders! The word for "a gender" is ett kön, making its definite form könet (the gender). Here, the root word is en kö (a line or a queue), which makes its definite form kön (the queue).
The word i appears twice in this sentence. Do they mean the same thing?
No, they serve two different purposes here! Swedish uses i for both physical location and duration of time, while English uses two different words. The first i means "in" (i kön = in the queue), and the second i means "for" (i en timme = for an hour).
Could I just say Pojken väntar i kön i en timme if he is still waiting right now?
If you use the present tense väntar (waits), it usually means he waits in the queue for an hour as a general routine (for example, every day). To say he started waiting in the past and has been doing it for an hour leading up to right now, you use the present perfect har väntat (has waited), just like in English.
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