Breakdown of Hur borde man bete sig på festen?
hur
how
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
festen
the party
man
one, you (people in general)
Questions & Answers about Hur borde man bete sig på festen?
Why use borde here instead of ska?
Borde means "should" or "ought to" and is used to ask for advice or a recommendation. If you used ska, it would sound more like "How are we going to behave?" rather than asking for the right way to act.
Why is there no att (to) before bete?
Because borde is a modal verb. Just like in English where we say "should behave" instead of "should to behave", Swedish modal verbs are followed directly by the bare infinitive of the next verb, without att.
What does the word sig do in this sentence?
The verb bete sig is a reflexive verb, which means it requires a pronoun that reflects back to the subject. It literally translates to "behave oneself". Since the subject is the general pronoun man (one), the matching reflexive pronoun is sig (oneself).
Why does the verb borde come before the subject man?
This is because of the Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule. In an open question, the question word Hur (How) takes up the first spot, so the verb borde has to come next, pushing the subject man to the third spot.
Why do we use på for "at the party" instead of ?