Breakdown of Om du hade mycket pengar, skulle du köpa drömhuset eller herrgården?
du
you (singular)
mycket
much / very
köpa
to buy
ha
to have
Questions & Answers about Om du hade mycket pengar, skulle du köpa drömhuset eller herrgården?
Why do we use the past tense hade when talking about a hypothetical situation right now?
In Swedish, just like in English, you use the simple past tense to talk about unreal or hypothetical situations in the present. The word hade functions just like the English past tense word 'had' does in the phrase 'If you had a lot of money'.
Why is the word order skulle du instead of du skulle in the second half of the sentence?
This is the V2 (verb-second) rule in action. The entire conditional clause Om du hade mycket pengar counts as the first block of information in the main sentence. The verb skulle must take the second position, pushing the subject du into the third position.
How do we know that skulle means 'would' here instead of 'should'?
When paired with an om clause describing an unreal situation, the past-tense verb skulle acts as the conditional 'would'. It combines with the bare infinitive köpa to mean 'would buy'. If you wanted to say 'should buy', you would typically use borde köpa instead.
How is the word herrgården built?