Breakdown of Företagaren driver en egen firma, men risken är stor.
vara
to be
en
a, an (common)
stor
big
men
but
företagaren
the entrepreneur
driva
to run (a business)
egen
own
firman
the firm
risken
the risk
Questions & Answers about Företagaren driver en egen firma, men risken är stor.
Why does the Swedish sentence say en egen firma (an own firm) instead of using a word for 'his'?
In Swedish, you can say en egen firma (literally 'an own firm') to mean 'a firm of one's own'. It is very common to use the article en or ett with egen when mentioning something you own for the first time. You could also say sin egen firma (his own firm) here, which is grammatically correct and means the same thing.
If we changed it to sin egen firma, why doesn't egen get an '-a' at the end?
This is the special rule for the word egen! Normally, after possessive words like sin, min, or hans, adjectives must take the definite form and end in '-a' (like sin stora firma). But egen is a rare exception and keeps its indefinite form: sin egen firma.
Does the verb driver mean 'driving' a car?
Not in this case! While driva can mean to drive or push something forward, you do not use it for driving vehicles (that word is köra). When talking about a business, a project, or a farm, driver translates to 'runs' or 'operates'.
Why is the word for 'the entrepreneur' företagaren and not just företagen?
The base noun here is företagare, which means 'entrepreneur' or 'business owner'. Nouns ending in -are usually describe a person doing something. To make an -are word definite ('the entrepreneur'), you only add an -n to the end, giving us företagaren. If you said företagen, that would mean 'the companies' instead.
Learn Företagaren driver en egen firma, men risken är stor and more in Swedish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free