Breakdown of Middagen som vi aldrig pratar om innehåller nötter.
vi
we
prata
to speak
aldrig
never
om
about
som
who / which / that (relative pronoun)
middagen
the dinner
innehålla
to contain
nöten
the nut
Questions & Answers about Middagen som vi aldrig pratar om innehåller nötter.
Why is aldrig placed before the verb pratar here?
This is a perfect example of the BIFF rule! The phrase som vi aldrig pratar om is a subordinate clause because it starts with som (that). In subordinate clauses, sentence adverbs like aldrig (never), inte (not), and kanske (maybe) must be placed before the verb. If this were a regular main clause, the order would be vi pratar aldrig....
Doesn't the V2 rule mean the verb innehåller should be the second word?
It is in the second position, but you have to count "blocks" of information, not just single words. The entire subject of this sentence is the long phrase Middagen som vi aldrig pratar om (The dinner that we never talk about). Because that whole chunk acts as the first block of the sentence, the main verb innehåller comes directly after it to keep its second-place spot.
Is it okay to leave the preposition om (about) hanging right before innehåller?
Yes, it is very natural in Swedish. Just like in English where we say "that we never talk about", Swedish leaves the preposition at the end of the relative clause (som vi aldrig pratar om). Trying to rephrase it to avoid the hanging preposition would sound overly formal and unnatural in everyday Swedish.
What is the singular form of nötter?
The singular form is en nöt (a nut). It belongs to a group of nouns that take an -er ending in the plural. Notice that it also gets a double t in the plural to keep the short ö vowel sound: nöt -> nötter.
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