Breakdown of Han förklarar att han sällan får en hemsk reaktion, fastän han är allergisk.
vara
to be
han
he
en
a, an (common)
sällan
rarely
förklara
to explain
att
that
hemsk
terrible
fastän
even though
få
to get, receive
allergisk
allergic
reaktionen
the reaction
Questions & Answers about Han förklarar att han sällan får en hemsk reaktion, fastän han är allergisk.
Why does sällan come before the verb får in this sentence?
Because it is in a subordinate clause. In a normal main clause, the adverb comes after the verb (han får sällan). However, this clause starts with att (that), making it a subordinate clause. In Swedish, subordinate clauses follow the 'BIFF' rule, meaning sentence adverbs like sällan (seldom), inte (not), or alltid (always) must be placed before the verb.
What does fastän mean, and how does it affect word order?
Fastän means "even though" or "although". Just like att, it is a subordinating conjunction, meaning it starts a new subordinate clause. If we added a sentence adverb to this part of the sentence, it would also follow the BIFF rule and go before the verb (for example: fastän han alltid är allergisk).
Why is the adjective written as hemsk and not hemskt?
Because it is describing en reaktion, which is an en-word. Adjectives match the gender of the noun they describe, so we use the base form hemsk. If it were describing an ett-word, you would add a 't' (hemskt), and for plural nouns, you would add an 'a' (hemska).
I notice reaktion is spelled with a 'k'. Is this a common pattern?
Yes! English words that end in "-ction" almost always end in -ktion in Swedish. You will see this same pattern in words like infektion (infection), produktion (production), and funktion (function).
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