Breakdown of Både mamman och pappan har varit vakna i ett dygn.
vara
to be
ett
a, an (neuter)
och
and
ha
to have
i
for (duration)
mamman
the mother
pappan
the father
både
both
vaken
awake
dygnet
the 24-hour period
Questions & Answers about Både mamman och pappan har varit vakna i ett dygn.
Why do we use i instead of på for "for twenty-four hours" in this sentence?
In Swedish, we use i to talk about how long an ongoing action lasts. Since they have been continuously awake for the whole duration, we use i. You would use på when talking about how long it takes to finish a completed action, or in negative sentences (for example, if they had not slept for 24 hours).
What exactly does ett dygn mean?
Ett dygn is a specific Swedish word that means a full 24-hour period, including both the day and the night. Because English doesn't have a single-word equivalent, it is usually translated as "twenty-four hours" or "a day and a night".
Why does the sentence use vakna instead of vaken?
Vakna is the plural form of the adjective vaken, which means awake. Since the sentence is talking about two people together (mamman och pappan), the adjective must be in its plural form to match them.
How does the phrase både ... och work?
Både means "both", and it is almost always paired with och (and) to mean "Both X and Y". It is a fixed pairing that is very useful to memorize, just like in the sentence's structure: både mamman och pappan.
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