Breakdown of Om de hade pengarna, skulle de donera allt till välgörenhet.
de
they
ha
to have
till
to (direction, destination)
pengarna
the money
allt
everything / all (neuter)
om
if, whether
skulle
would
donera
to donate
välgörenheten
the charity
Questions & Answers about Om de hade pengarna, skulle de donera allt till välgörenhet.
Why do we use the past tense hade if we are talking about a hypothetical situation right now?
Just like in English, Swedish uses the simple past tense (preteritum) to talk about an unreal or hypothetical situation in the present. Om de hade... translates exactly to "If they had...".
Why does the second part say skulle de instead of de skulle?
This is the V2 (verb-second) rule in action! The entire om (if) clause counts as the first block of information in the sentence. Therefore, the verb skulle must come immediately after the comma to be in the second position, pushing the subject de to the third position.
Why is it pengarna instead of pengar or pengen?
The English sentence says "the money", so we need the definite form. In Swedish, the word for money (pengar) is almost always used in the plural, so it takes the definite plural ending -na to become pengarna.
Why do we use allt for "everything" instead of alla?
When you mean "everything" in an abstract or uncountable sense (like donating all of a lump sum), you use the neuter form allt. If you used alla, it would mean "everyone" or refer to all of a specific plural, countable group of things.
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