Breakdown of Vi kan tyvärr inte acceptera erbjudandet.
vi
we
inte
not
kunna
to be able to, can
tyvärr
unfortunately
Questions & Answers about Vi kan tyvärr inte acceptera erbjudandet.
Why does tyvärr come before inte here?
Both tyvärr (unfortunately) and inte (not) are sentence adverbs. When a sentence has multiple sentence adverbs, the one expressing an attitude or degree of certainty (like tyvärr, faktiskt, or antagligen) almost always comes before the negation inte.
What happens to the word order if I start the sentence with Tyvärr for emphasis?
Because Swedish uses the V2 rule, meaning the conjugated verb must be the second idea in a main clause, starting with Tyvärr pushes the subject vi after the verb. The sentence would become: Tyvärr kan vi inte acceptera erbjudandet.
Why are the two verbs kan and acceptera separated by the adverbs?
In a main clause, sentence adverbs like tyvärr and inte are placed directly after the first, conjugated verb (kan). Any additional verbs, like the infinitive acceptera, are pushed to the other side of the adverbs.
Why does the word for the offer end in -det?
The base noun is ett erbjudande (an offer). Because it is an ett word that already ends in a vowel, you simply add a -t to make it definite, resulting in erbjudandet (the offer).