Word
Vi räddar företaget genom att samarbeta.
Meaning
We save the company by cooperating.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vi räddar företaget genom att samarbeta.
vi
we
företaget
the company
samarbeta
to cooperate
rädda
to save
Questions & Answers about Vi räddar företaget genom att samarbeta.
Why does 'by cooperating' translate to genom att samarbeta?
To express how you do something, Swedish uses genom att (literally 'through to') followed by a verb in its infinitive form. English uses '-ing' words after prepositions, but Swedish always uses att + infinitive, which is why we use the basic form samarbeta here.
How do we know företaget (the company) is an 'ett' word?
You can tell by the definite ending! The base word is ett företag (a company). For 'ett' words that end in a consonant, you add '-et' to the end to make it definite ('the company'). If it were an 'en' word, it would usually end in '-en'.
Is samarbeta related to the word for 'work'?
Yes! It is a compound of the prefix sam- (meaning 'together' or 'co-') and the verb arbeta (to work). So it literally translates to 'work together'.
Could vi räddar also mean 'we are saving' in this sentence?
Absolutely. Swedish does not have a separate 'is/are doing' tense like English does. Vi räddar translates to both 'we save' and 'we are saving' depending on what makes the most sense in context.