Word
Trollstaven ligger under duken, men publiken rör den inte.
Meaning
The magic wand lies under the cloth, but the audience does not touch it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Trollstaven ligger under duken, men publiken rör den inte.
den
it (common)
inte
not
men
but
publiken
the audience
Questions & Answers about Trollstaven ligger under duken, men publiken rör den inte.
Why is the word order rör den inte instead of rör inte den?
This is a rule called object pronoun shift. In a simple main clause, if the object is an unstressed pronoun like den, it usually jumps ahead of inte. If it were a regular noun, like trollstaven, it would stay after inte: publiken rör inte trollstaven.
Why do we use den for 'it' in this sentence?
The pronoun den refers back to trollstaven (the magic wand). Since trollstav is an en-word, we must use den to say 'it'. If the object were an ett-word, we would use det.
The verb rör means 'touch' here. Doesn't it also mean 'move'?
Yes, the root verb can mean both! However, rör by itself typically means 'touch', just like in this sentence. To say 'move', Swedes often add the particle på, as in rör på den (move it).
How is the word trollstaven formed?