Breakdown of Mannen köper en tidning i kiosken innan han går till busshållplatsen.
han
he
en
a, an (common)
tidningen
the newspaper
mannen
the man
köpa
to buy
i
in
gå
to go, to walk
till
to (direction, destination)
innan
before
kiosken
the kiosk
busshållplatsen
the bus stop
Questions & Answers about Mannen köper en tidning i kiosken innan han går till busshållplatsen.
busshållplatsen is a long word! How is it built?
It is a compound word made of three parts: buss (bus) + håll (stop, from the verb hålla) + plats (place). Notice that the definite ending -en is only added to the very end of the entire compound word, making it busshållplatsen (the bus stop).
Why do we use the preposition i for the kiosk, but till for the bus stop?
I (in) is used because the man is physically inside the kiosk while buying the newspaper. Till (to) is used for busshållplatsen to show his direction or movement toward a destination (går till = walks to).
Could I use före instead of innan for 'before' in this sentence?
It is best to use innan here. Innan is a conjunction used before a full clause that has its own subject and verb, like han går. Före is a preposition generally used before just a noun, such as före bussen (before the bus).
Why does the second part of the sentence say innan han går (Subject-Verb) instead of using the V2 rule?
The V2 (verb-second) rule applies to main clauses. Innan starts a subordinate (dependent) clause. In Swedish subordinate clauses, the subject always comes immediately after the conjunction, followed by the verb.
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