Breakdown of Hon sa att hon ville dölja sanningen.
hon
she
vilja
to want to
säga
to say
sanningen
the truth
att
that
dölja
to hide (conceal, e.g., feelings or truth)
Questions & Answers about Hon sa att hon ville dölja sanningen.
Why is it ville (wanted) instead of vill (wants) if she is still trying to hide the truth?
This is a rule called backshifting, which happens in indirect speech. Because the main reporting verb is in the past tense (sa), the verb in the "that" clause (att hon ville...) must also shift one step back into the past. Even if her desire to hide the truth is still true right now, Swedish (like English) changes "wants" to "wanted" to match the tense of "said".
I usually learn that the past tense of säga (to say) is sade. Why is it written as sa here?
Sade is the formal written past tense, but in spoken Swedish and everyday writing, it is almost always shortened to sa. You will see and hear sa constantly, and it is perfectly correct to use unless you are writing a highly formal or academic text.
The English translation says "wanted TO hide". Why isn't there an att (to) before dölja?
In Swedish, modal verbs and a few other common verbs expressing desire or intent—like vill/ville (want/wanted), kan (can), and ska (will)—are followed directly by the bare infinitive of the next verb. You never use the infinitive marker att after them, so it is simply ville dölja.
How is the word sanningen (the truth) built?
It is built from the adjective sann (true). By adding the common noun-forming suffix -ing, you get en sanning (a truth). Because the sentence requires "the truth", the definite suffix -en is added to the end, giving us sanningen.
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