Breakdown of Kollegan kom på en fantastisk idé och skrev ner den.
en
a, an (common)
den
it (common)
och
and
idén
the idea
kollegan
the colleague
fantastisk
fantastic
komma på
to come up with
skriva ner
to write down
Questions & Answers about Kollegan kom på en fantastisk idé och skrev ner den.
How does kom på mean "came up with" here?
Komma på is an idiomatic particle verb. While the verb komma means "to come" and the preposition på means "on", together as a pair they take on a completely new meaning: "to think of", "to remember", or "to come up with" (like an idea).
Can I separate the particle from the verb and say skrev den ner like in English ("wrote it down")?
No, in Swedish the particle almost always stays glued right after the verb. Unlike English, you cannot put the object pronoun between the verb and the particle, so it must be skrev ner den.
Where should I place the emphasis when speaking kom på and skrev ner aloud?
In Swedish particle verbs, the heavy stress always falls on the particle, not the verb itself. You should emphasize på and ner rather than the verbs kom and skrev.
Why does the sentence end with den and not det?
Den is a pronoun meaning "it" that refers back to the idea. Because idé is an en-word (en idé), you must use the matching pronoun den. If it had been an ett-word, you would have used det.
Kollega is an en-word. Why is the definite form kollegan instead of kollegaen?
For en-words that already end in a vowel (like -a), you generally just add -n instead of the full -en to make them definite. So en kollega simply becomes kollegan.
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