Breakdown of Brandmannen kom springande in i huset.
huset
the house
i
in
komma
to come
springa
to run
in
in, into (motion)
brandmannen
the firefighter
Questions & Answers about Brandmannen kom springande in i huset.
How is springande formed, and what is its role in this sentence?
It is the present participle of the verb springa (to run). In Swedish, you often pair a general motion verb like komma with a present participle ending in -ande or -ende to describe how someone moved. Here, it acts as an adverb telling us the firefighter arrived by running.
Would springande change its ending if there were multiple firefighters?
No, present participles do not change to match the subject. Whether it is one firefighter (brandmannen kom springande) or a whole crew (brandmännen kom springande), the word springande stays exactly the same.
Why do we need both in and i to say into the house?
Swedish is very specific about motion. in is a directional adverb showing movement from outside to inside, while i connects it to the location (huset). If you only wrote i huset, it would mean the firefighter was already inside the house when he started running.
Since springande means running, can I use it to say the firefighter is running right now?
No, that is a common trap! While Swedish uses the present participle to describe the manner of an action (like kom springande), it does not use it for continuous tenses like in English. To say the firefighter is running, you simply use the regular present tense: brandmannen springer.
Learn Brandmannen kom springande in i huset 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