Breakdown of Vi borde gå in och hälsa.
vi
we
och
and
gå
to go, to walk
in
in, into (motion)
böra
should, ought to
hälsa
to greet
Questions & Answers about Vi borde gå in och hälsa.
Why does this sentence use gå and hälsa instead of går and hälsar?
Because of the modal verb borde (should). Just like in English where we say 'should go' and not 'should goes', Swedish uses the bare infinitive form of the verb after borde. Since gå and hälsa are connected by och (and), they both share the modal verb borde and stay in the infinitive.
I learned that verbs ending in '-de' are usually in the past tense. Is borde past tense?
Historically, yes! borde is the past tense form of the verb böra (ought to). However, in modern Swedish, borde is almost always used to give present or future advice, exactly like how 'should' (the past tense of 'shall') is used in English.
Why do we use in here instead of inne?
Swedish uses different words depending on whether you are moving towards a destination or resting at a location. Because we are moving from the outside to the inside, we use the directional word in. If we were already inside, we would use the location word inne.
Doesn't the word hälsa mean 'health'?
It can! The noun en hälsa means 'health'. But in this sentence, it is used as a verb in its infinitive form, att hälsa, which means 'to greet' or 'to say hello'.
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