Breakdown of De anställda får inte stämpla in innan mötet.
inte
not
få
to be allowed to, may
innan
before
mötet
the meeting
de
the (plural, before adjective)
anställd
employed
stämpla in
to clock in
Questions & Answers about De anställda får inte stämpla in innan mötet.
Why is 'must not' translated as får inte instead of måste inte?
This is a key difference between English and Swedish! In Swedish, får inte expresses a strict prohibition ('are not allowed to' or 'must not'). If you used måste inte or behöver inte, it would mean 'do not have to' (a lack of necessity). Since the employees are forbidden from clocking in early, we must use får inte.
Why is there no att before stämpla in?
Får is a modal verb, just like kan, vill, or måste. In Swedish, modal verbs are followed directly by the bare infinitive of the next verb, so we just use stämpla in without adding att.
How does the phrase stämpla in work, and how is it pronounced?
It is a particle verb (phrasal verb) meaning 'to clock in'. The base verb stämpla means 'to stamp'. A crucial rule for Swedish particle verbs is that the spoken stress always falls heavily on the particle. When speaking, you should emphasize the word in.
Why is it De anställda? It looks like an adjective.
Anställda is the plural past participle of the verb anställa (to hire), used here as a noun meaning 'employees' or 'hired people'. Because it behaves like an adjective, it uses the freestanding definite article De to mean 'the employees'.
Could I use före instead of innan in this sentence?
Yes, you can! Före mötet and innan mötet mean exactly the same thing. Traditionally, före is a preposition used before nouns and innan is a conjunction used before full clauses. However, in modern everyday Swedish, innan is very commonly used as a preposition before nouns too.
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