Breakdown of Nej, men vi upplevde en svår situation i fredags.
vi
we
en
a, an (common)
nej
no
svår
difficult
Questions & Answers about Nej, men vi upplevde en svår situation i fredags.
Why does this sentence use the simple past upplevde instead of the present perfect har upplevt?
The key here is the time marker i fredags (last Friday). In Swedish, whenever you mention a specific, finished time in the past, you must use the simple past (preteritum). If the sentence didn't specify when it happened, you could say vi har upplevt en svår situation (we have experienced a difficult situation).
How does the expression i fredags work to mean "last Friday"?
To talk about the most recent past occurrence of a day of the week, Swedish uses the preposition i followed by the day ending with an -s. So en fredag is "a Friday", but i fredags means specifically "last Friday". This expression is a very common trigger for the simple past tense.
What does the phrase Nej, men do at the start of the sentence?
While it literally means "No, but", Nej, men is a very common conversational filler in spoken Swedish. It often acts as a transition, much like "Well," or "Actually," in English, and is used to softly pivot the conversation or gently introduce a contrasting point.
Is svår the only word for "hard"? Could I use hård here instead?