Breakdown of Spårvagnen kommer om en kvart.
en
a, an (common)
komma
to come
om
in (time from now)
kvarten
the quarter
Questions & Answers about Spårvagnen kommer om en kvart.
Does en kvart just mean 15 minutes?
Yes, en kvart specifically means a quarter of an hour, or 15 minutes. While you are learning to use it in clock times like kvart i (quarter to) or kvart över (quarter past), it is also used as a standalone noun to talk about a 15-minute wait or duration.
Why use om instead of i to say "in a quarter of an hour"?
When talking about when a single event will happen in the future, Swedish uses om. If you said i en kvart, it would mean the action lasts continuously for a duration of 15 minutes! Always use om for "in [amount of time] from now".
Why does the Swedish sentence use kommer (comes) instead of a future tense word for "will come"?
Swedish frequently uses the present tense to talk about the future, similar to saying "The tram is coming" in English. This is the standard way to speak when you include a specific time phrase in the sentence, like om en kvart, which already makes it clear you mean the future.
How do you break down the word spårvagnen?
It is a compound word made of spår (track) and vagn (carriage or wagon), plus the definite suffix -en (the). So it literally translates to "the track-wagon", which is the Swedish word for "the tram".