Breakdown of Efter debatten hade politikern fler röster.
ha
to have
efter
after
fler
more (countable)
rösten
the vote
Questions & Answers about Efter debatten hade politikern fler röster.
Why does the sentence use fler for "more" instead of mer?
In Swedish, fler is the comparative form of många (many), and we use it for things we can count individually—like röster (votes). Mer is the comparative form of mycket (much), used for uncountable things like water or time. Since you can count votes, we use fler.
Why is the word order hade politikern (had the politician) rather than politikern hade?
This is the Swedish V2 rule in action! The verb must always be the second piece of information in a statement. Because the sentence starts with the time phrase Efter debatten (After the debate), the verb hade takes the second spot, pushing the subject politikern to the third spot.
The word for a politician is en politiker. Why does "the politician" become politikern instead of politikeren?
For en-words that end in an unstressed -er (like politiker), you only add an -n to make it definite. Adding a full -en would make the word clunky and hard to say, so it shrinks down to just politikern.