Breakdown of Tjuven blir dömd till ett långt straff.
ett
a, an (neuter)
till
to (direction, destination)
lång
long / tall
bli
to become
tjuven
the thief
döma
to sentence
straffet
the punishment
Questions & Answers about Tjuven blir dömd till ett långt straff.
Why do we use blir dömd here instead of the s-passive döms?
Using the verb bli (to become) plus a past participle like dömd creates a dynamic passive. It puts the focus on the actual change or process taking place, often translating to 'gets sentenced' or 'is being sentenced'. The s-passive (döms) is also perfectly fine here and means basically the same thing, but blir emphasizes the transition.
Why is the word for sentenced spelled dömd here instead of dömt?
In the bli passive construction, the past participle acts like an adjective describing the subject. Because the subject tjuven (the thief) is a singular en-word, the participle takes the en-word form dömd. If the subject were an ett-word, it would be dömt, and for plural subjects, it would be dömda.
We use till for 'sentenced to'. Would we use a different preposition if we mentioned the crime instead?
Yes! Just like in English, you use till to introduce the punishment (sentenced to a long punishment). If you want to say what the thief was convicted of, you use för (for), for example: dömd för stöld (sentenced for theft).
Why does the adjective långt have a 't' at the end?
långt (long) gets a 't' added to the end because it is describing ett straff (a punishment), which is an ett-word. Adjectives always have to match the gender of the noun they describe.
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