Breakdown of Barnet hör gatumusikanten ropa till publiken.
barnet
the child
till
to (direction, destination)
höra
to hear
publiken
the audience
gatumusikanten
the street musician
ropa
to shout
Questions & Answers about Barnet hör gatumusikanten ropa till publiken.
Why do we use the infinitive ropa instead of a present tense verb like ropar?
Because hör is a verb of perception (a verb about hearing or seeing). Just like in English ("hears the musician shout"), when you hear or see someone perform an action, Swedish uses the object (gatumusikanten) followed directly by the bare infinitive (ropa) without the infinitive marker att.
In English, I could also say "hears the street musician shouting". Can I use a present participle here in Swedish?
You should stick to the infinitive ropa. While English distinguishes between hearing the whole action ("shout") and an ongoing action ("shouting"), Swedish generally uses the bare infinitive for both situations after a perception verb.
How is the compound word gatumusikanten formed?
It is made from gata (street) and musikanten (the musician). Notice how gata changes to gatu-. A small group of common nouns ending in -a change their ending to -u or -o when they become the first part of a compound word (for example, en gata becomes ett gatukök and en vecka becomes ett veckoslut).
Why is the preposition till used after ropa instead of på?
Using ropa till means "to shout to" or "to call out to" someone, which implies communication or projecting your voice to be heard. If the musician were shouting at the audience (to scold them or call them over), you would use ropa på instead.
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