Breakdown of Snickaren kan inte hitta skruven och skruvmejseln själv.
och
and
hitta
to find
inte
not
kunna
to be able to, can
snickaren
the carpenter
själv
oneself (emphatic)
skruvmejseln
the screwdriver
skruven
the screw
Questions & Answers about Snickaren kan inte hitta skruven och skruvmejseln själv.
Why is it själv instead of själva when he is looking for two items?
The word själv (himself/by himself) refers back to the subject of the sentence, which is snickaren (the carpenter). Since there is only one carpenter, we use the singular själv. If there were multiple carpenters, it would be själva, regardless of how many items they are looking for.
Does själv always go at the very end of the sentence like this?
Usually, yes! When själv is used to emphasize that the subject is doing the action "oneself" or "by oneself", it is placed at the end of the clause, right after the objects (in this case, skruven och skruvmejseln).
Skruven adds -en to mean "the screw", so why does skruvmejseln only add -n?
The base word for screwdriver is skruvmejsel, which ends in an unstressed -el. When an en-word ends in -el, -er, or -en, we just add -n to make it definite. Adding a whole extra syllable would be clunky, so we get skruvmejseln instead of "skruvmejselen".
Why does inte split up the verbs kan and hitta?
In a Swedish main clause, the first verb (kan) takes the second position. The negation inte usually comes immediately after this first, conjugated verb. Any other verbs in the sentence, like the infinitive hitta, get pushed after inte.
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