Breakdown of De hade aldrig skrivit under avtalet.
de
they
ha
to have
aldrig
never
skriva under
to sign
avtalet
the agreement
Questions & Answers about De hade aldrig skrivit under avtalet.
Why does aldrig come between hade and skrivit?
In Swedish main clauses, the conjugated verb (here, the auxiliary verb hade) must take the second position. Sentence adverbs like aldrig (never) or inte (not) usually come immediately after that first verb, which pushes the main verb (skrivit) further back in the sentence.
Why is the verb skrivit instead of skrev?
Because this sentence means "had signed", which requires a combination of verbs. You use the auxiliary verb hade (had) followed by the supine form of the main verb. For the verb skriva (to write), the past tense is skrev, but the supine form used after har or hade is skrivit.
How does the phrase skrivit under work?
Skriva under is a particle verb that literally translates to "write under", which is how you say "to sign" in Swedish. When using a particle verb, the verb (skrivit) and its particle (under) stay close together, coming right before the object (avtalet).
Why does the word for agreement end in -et (avtalet)?
The base noun is an ett-word: ett avtal (an agreement). To make it definite (the agreement) acting as the object of this sentence, you add the definite suffix -et to the end, resulting in avtalet.
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