Breakdown of Barnet kan inte vara tyst i en minut.
vara
to be
barnet
the child
en
a, an (common)
inte
not
kunna
to be able to, can
i
for (duration)
tyst
quiet
minuten
the minute
Questions & Answers about Barnet kan inte vara tyst i en minut.
Why do we use i instead of på here? I thought negative sentences with time used på?
You are right that negative sentences usually take på to mean "for" (like Jag har inte ätit på en timme - I haven't eaten for an hour). However, på is used when an action hasn't happened at all during that time. In this sentence, we are talking about a continuous block of time ("for the duration of a minute") that the child is incapable of filling with quietness. For how long an action lasts, we use i.
Could i en minut also mean "in a minute" (like "I will be quiet in a minute")?
No, to say "in a minute" when talking about the future, Swedish uses the preposition om (om en minut). When you use i with time, it almost always means "for" a specific duration.
Since barnet is an ett word, why isn't tyst spelled with an extra 't' at the end?
Adjectives usually do get a -t at the end when describing an ett word. However, since tyst (quiet) already ends in the consonant cluster -st, adding another -t would make it too hard to pronounce. So, it just stays tyst.
Why does inte go between kan and vara?
In a standard main clause, the word inte (not) always goes directly after the first, conjugated verb. Here, kan is the first verb, so inte must follow it immediately before the second verb, vara (to be).
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