Breakdown of Programmet som de sänder slutar om ungefär tjugo minuter.
de
they
sluta
to stop
tjugo
twenty
om
in (time from now)
programmet
the program
som
who / which / that (relative pronoun)
minuten
the minute
sända
to broadcast
ungefär
approximately
Questions & Answers about Programmet som de sänder slutar om ungefär tjugo minuter.
Why does the sentence use om instead of i to mean "in"?
When you are talking about a point in the future, Swedish uses om to mean "in". So om ungefär tjugo minuter means "in about twenty minutes from now." If you used i tjugo minuter, it would mean you are doing something for a duration of twenty minutes.
Doesn't slutar break the V2 (verb-second) rule since it is the fifth word in the sentence?
No, it follows the rule perfectly! The V2 rule says the verb must be the second block of information in the main sentence. Here, the entire phrase Programmet som de sänder (The program that they broadcast) acts as a single block—the subject. Therefore, the main verb slutar is safely in the second position.
Can I leave out som just like we often drop "that" in English?
Yes, you can! Because som refers to the object of the phrase (the program that they are broadcasting), it is grammatically fine to drop it and just say Programmet de sänder slutar... However, keeping som is very common in Swedish and often makes the sentence flow more clearly.
A quick reminder: how is de pronounced here?
Even though it is written as de, it is almost always pronounced as dom in modern, everyday spoken Swedish.
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