Breakdown of Pendeltåget kommer till perrongen kvart i fem.
komma
to come
till
to (direction, destination)
fem
five
kvarten
the quarter
Questions & Answers about Pendeltåget kommer till perrongen kvart i fem.
If halv fem means 4:30, does kvart i fem also point to a different hour than it seems?
Good news! Unlike halv (which looks ahead to the next hour), kvart i (quarter to) and kvart över (quarter past) work exactly the same way as they do in English. Kvart i fem is simply 4:45.
Why is there no word for "at" or "a" in the phrase kvart i fem?
In Swedish, you don't use an article before kvart (quarter) when telling time. You also don't usually need a preposition like "at" before a specific clock time. You just say kvart i fem (literally "quarter in five"), which means "at a quarter to five".
How is the word pendeltåget (the commuter train) built?
It is a compound word made of pendel (pendulum, used here for commuting) and tåget (the train). Notice that the definite "the" ending (-et) only goes at the very end of the entire compound word, not on both parts.
Can kommer (comes) refer to the future here?
Yes! Swedish frequently uses the present tense (kommer) to talk about scheduled events in the future, like train or bus arrivals, just as we say "the train comes at 4:45" in English.