Breakdown of Mannen säger att de ska skilja sig.
de
they
mannen
the man
ska
will
säga
to say
att
that
skilja sig
to get divorced
Questions & Answers about Mannen säger att de ska skilja sig.
If the man is talking about himself and his partner, why does the sentence use de (they) instead of vi (we)?
This is indirect speech! In direct speech, the man probably said, "Vi ska skilja oss" (We are getting divorced). When we report what he said from an outside perspective, the pronoun vi changes to de (they).
Why does the sentence end with sig?
The verb att skilja sig (to get divorced) is a reflexive verb. Because the subject of the indirect speech is de, the reflexive pronoun must match it. If the man said it directly, he would say "Vi ska skilja oss", but since we are talking about them, it shifts to "de ska skilja sig".
The English translation says "are getting divorced", but the Swedish sentence uses ska. Why?
English often uses the present continuous tense ("are getting") to talk about planned future events. Swedish doesn't do this. Instead, Swedish uses ska (will / are going to) to show that this is a firm intention or a plan for the future.
Do I always have to use att (that) in this type of sentence?
Just like in English ("The man says they are getting divorced"), you can often drop att in casual spoken Swedish. However, it is safer to keep it while you're learning, and it is standard to include it in written Swedish.
How should I pronounce de in this sentence?
Even though it is written as de, it is almost always pronounced as dom in spoken Swedish.
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