Word
Det var kaptenen som slog passningen.
Meaning
It was the captain who made the pass.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Det var kaptenen som slog passningen.
vara
to be
det
it (neuter)
som
who / which / that (relative pronoun)
slå
to beat / to hit, strike (e.g. play a pass)
Questions & Answers about Det var kaptenen som slog passningen.
Why use the structure Det var ... som instead of just saying Kaptenen slog passningen?
This is a cleft sentence, used to create emphasis. By wrapping the subject in Det var (It was) and som (who/that), you put a strong spotlight on kaptenen. It stresses that the captain made the pass, not any other player.
Why is the verb slog used to mean "made" here?
The verb slå usually means "to hit" or "to beat", but in Swedish sports terminology, it is the standard verb for making a pass, taking a free kick, or crossing a ball. Therefore, slog passningen translates to "made the pass".
Since kaptenen is a person, can I use vem instead of som?
No, you must use som. In Swedish, som is the relative pronoun used for "who", "which", or "that" when connecting clauses. Vem is strictly a question word (as in "Who is that?") and cannot be used to link clauses like this.
If I wanted to emphasize the pass instead of the captain, how would this sentence change?
You would move passningen into the spotlight position between Det var and som. The sentence would become: Det var passningen som kaptenen slog. (It was the pass that the captain made.)