Breakdown of Han viskade att det bara var ett skämt.
vara
to be
ett
a, an (neuter)
han
he
det
it (neuter)
bara
only, just
att
that
viska
to whisper
skämtet
the joke
Questions & Answers about Han viskade att det bara var ett skämt.
Why does the sentence use var (was) instead of är (is) if the joke is still a joke?
Because the main reporting verb is in the past tense (viskade). When reporting what someone said in the past, Swedish "backshifts" the tense in the subordinate clause to match it. He originally whispered, "Det är bara ett skämt" (It is just a joke), but in indirect speech, är shifts back to var.
Why is the word order det bara var? Shouldn't the verb come before bara?
This is because of the word order rule for subordinate clauses. In a dependent clause starting with att (that), sentence adverbs like bara (just/only) or inte (not) must be placed before the verb. If you said this as an independent main sentence, the verb would come first: "Det var bara ett skämt."
What is the verb form of ett skämt?
The verb is att skämta (to joke). A very common phrase you will hear in Swedish is "Jag skämtar bara!" (I am just joking!). Another equally common pair of words you can use for this is ett skoj (a joke) and att skoja (to joke).
Why is skämt pronounced with a soft "sh"-like sound instead of a hard "sk"?
The letters sk are pronounced with the soft sj-sound when they are followed by a "soft" vowel (e, i, y, ä, ö). Since ä is a soft vowel, skämt gets the soft pronunciation. This is different from words with "hard" vowels (a, o, u, å), which keep the hard "sk" sound, like skor (shoes).
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