Breakdown of Han slösar ingen tid, utan betalar skulden.
han
he
tiden
the time
betala
to pay
ingen
no, none (en-word)
Questions & Answers about Han slösar ingen tid, utan betalar skulden.
Why is "but" translated as utan here instead of men?
In Swedish, utan is used instead of men when it follows a negative statement (like one with ingen) and means "but rather" or "instead". Because he wastes no time, we use utan to introduce what he does instead.
If I wanted to say he wastes "little time", would I use lite or få?
You would use lite (Han slösar lite tid). The noun tid (time) is uncountable here. You must use lite (little) for uncountable amounts, reserving få (few) for countable plural nouns like få skulder (few debts).
Why is it ingen tid rather than inget tid?
The word for "no" must match the noun's gender. Because tid is an en-word (en tid), we use ingen. If it were an ett-word, you would use inget.
How does the word skulden work here?
Skulden means "the debt". The base noun is en skuld (a debt), and adding the -en ending makes it definite. In other contexts, skuld can also mean "guilt" or "fault".