Breakdown of Det är drygt två mil till staden.
vara
to be
staden
the city
till
to (direction, destination)
två
two
det
there (dummy subject)
drygt
just over
milen
the Scandinavian mile
Questions & Answers about Det är drygt två mil till staden.
How does drygt change the meaning of the distance here?
The word drygt means just over or a little more than. It tells us that the distance isn't exactly two mil, but slightly more. If the distance were slightly less than two mil, you would use the opposite word from this lesson, knappt.
Is a Swedish mil the same distance as an English mile?
No, and this is a very important difference to remember! A Swedish mil is exactly 10 kilometers, which is about 6.2 English miles. Therefore, två mil is actually 20 kilometers.
Why doesn't the word mil get a plural ending after två?
Even though mil is an en-word, it belongs to a special group of measurement words that keep the same form in the plural when they follow a number. You simply say en mil and två mil.
Why do we use Det är at the start of the sentence?
Just like the English phrase 'It is', Swedish uses Det är as a dummy subject for distances, weather, and time. Since there is no actual person or object performing an action here, Det steps in to give the sentence a grammatical subject.
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