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Kakan gräddas i ugnen och serveras kall.

Kakan gräddas i ugnen och serveras kall.
The cake is baked in the oven and served cold.
From Lesson 127:The present s-passive (-s)·Swedish

Questions & Answers about Kakan gräddas i ugnen och serveras kall.

How do the verbs gräddas and serveras work in this sentence?
The -s at the end of these verbs creates the s-passive. Instead of the cake doing the action, the action is done to it (the cake is baked and is served). This passive form is the standard way to write recipes, rules, and formal instructions in Swedish.
Why use gräddas instead of bakas for 'is baked'?
In Swedish, baka refers to the entire process of making a baked good, like mixing the ingredients and making the dough. Grädda specifically refers to the final step of cooking it inside the oven. Since the sentence specifies the action happening in the oven (i ugnen), gräddas is the exact right word to use.
Why is the word for cold (kall) in its base form here?
The adjective kall describes Kakan (the cake). Because en kaka is an en-word and is singular, the adjective takes its basic form without a -t or -a ending. Adjectives must always match the noun they describe, even when they are separated by verbs in the sentence.
Why do we use the definite forms Kakan and ugnen?
In recipes, once an item or piece of equipment is introduced, Swedish uses the definite form because it is now a specific, known object to the reader. Just like in English, we say 'bake the cake in the oven' rather than 'a cake in an oven'.

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