Breakdown of Den arga mannen borde inte vara så otrevlig.
vara
to be
inte
not
mannen
the man
arg
angry
den
the (with en-words)
så
so
böra
should, ought to
otrevlig
impolite
Questions & Answers about Den arga mannen borde inte vara så otrevlig.
Why do we use vara instead of är after borde?
Borde is a modal verb meaning "should" or "ought to". Just like in English, it is followed directly by the bare infinitive form of the next verb, without an att (to) in front of it. So, we use the infinitive vara (be) instead of the present tense är (is).
Where does inte belong when there are two verbs?
In a standard main sentence like this, inte (not) always comes immediately after the first, conjugated verb. Since borde is the first verb, inte goes right after it, pushing the second verb (vara) further back in the sentence.
Why does arg have an -a at the end to become arga?
This is because of the Swedish "double definite" rule. When you have a definite article (den) and a definite noun (mannen), any adjective in between them must also take its definite form. For most adjectives, that means adding an -a to the end, giving us arga.
How does the prefix o- change the word otrevlig?
The prefix o- in Swedish works just like "un-", "im-", or "in-" in English to give a word the opposite meaning. Since trevlig means "nice" or "pleasant", adding o- makes it otrevlig, meaning "unpleasant" or "impolite".
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