Breakdown of Vi delade upp budgeten, men ingen var nöjd.
vara
to be
vi
we
men
but
ingen
no, none (en-word)
nöjd
satisfied
budgeten
the budget
dela upp
to divide (into parts)
Questions & Answers about Vi delade upp budgeten, men ingen var nöjd.
Why are delade and upp placed right next to each other instead of around the object?
In Swedish, dela upp is a particle verb. Unlike in English where you can say 'divided the budget up', Swedish particle verbs generally stay glued together. The object (budgeten) must come after the complete particle verb, not in the middle of it.
How is dela upp different from just using the verb dela?
The base verb dela usually means 'to share' or simply 'to split'. Adding the particle upp creates a more specific meaning: to systematically break something down into smaller portions, categories, or phases, much like 'divide up' or 'partition' in English.
Ingen implies multiple people in the group did not get what they wanted. Why isn't nöjd in the plural form nöjda?
The pronoun ingen (no one or nobody) is grammatically singular in Swedish, just as it is in English. Because the subject is singular, the adjective describing it must also take the singular en-word form (nöjd), rather than the plural (nöjda).
Since budget is an English loanword, how does it get the definite form budgeten here?
Many English loanwords ending in consonants become standard en-words when adopted into Swedish. To say 'the budget', you simply attach the standard definite suffix -en to the end of the base word, making it budgeten.
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