Breakdown of Vi gjorde inga betalningar i höstas.
vi
we
göra
to do, to make
inga
no (plural)
hösten
the autumn
i
last (in past time expressions)
betalningen
the payment
Questions & Answers about Vi gjorde inga betalningar i höstas.
Why does höst get an -as ending here instead of just -s?
To talk about a past season, Swedish uses i plus the season name and an -s or -as ending. While days of the week just add -s (like i måndags), seasons generally take -as. So höst becomes i höstas, just like vår becomes i våras and sommar becomes i somras.
Could I just say förra hösten instead of i höstas?
Yes, förra hösten (the previous autumn) is also grammatically correct and means the same thing. However, the i + season + -as format is extremely common in everyday speech for referring to the most recently passed season, so it is important to know.
Why do we use inga here instead of ingen or inget?
Inga is the plural form of the word for 'no' (meaning zero quantity). Because the noun betalningar (payments) is plural, the negative article must agree with it. If you were talking about a single payment, it would be ingen betalning.
Can I say inte några instead of inga?
Yes! Vi gjorde inga betalningar translates directly to 'We made no payments', while Vi gjorde inte några betalningar means 'We did not make any payments'. In a simple main clause like this one, both are perfectly natural and mean exactly the same thing.
If I start the sentence with I höstas, how does the word order change?
If you move the time phrase to the beginning of the sentence, you must follow the V2 rule, meaning the verb has to stay in the second position. The subject (vi) and the verb (gjorde) must swap places, giving you: I höstas gjorde vi inga betalningar.
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