Breakdown of Jag vill återvända till stugan dit vi åkte i somras.
jag
I
vi
we
vilja
to want to
åka
to go, to travel, to leave
till
to (direction, destination)
somras
summer (used in 'i somras')
i
last (in past time expressions)
återvända
to return (go back)
stugan
the cottage
dit
to where (relative)
Questions & Answers about Jag vill återvända till stugan dit vi åkte i somras.
Why does the sentence use dit instead of där for 'where'?
In Swedish, you must distinguish between location and motion. Där means 'where' (in a place), but dit means 'to where' (movement toward a destination). Because the relative clause says vi åkte (we went/travelled), indicating motion towards the cottage, you have to use the relative adverb dit.
How does i somras translate to 'last summer', and what does the -s do?
When you put i before a season and add -s to the end, it creates a specific time expression meaning 'last [season]' or 'the most recently passed [season]'. So, i somras means 'last summer', just like i vintras means 'last winter'.
Why isn't there an att (to) before återvända?
Even though in English we say 'want to return', the Swedish verb vill (want to) functions as an auxiliary (helping) verb. In Swedish, auxiliary verbs are followed directly by the infinitive form of the main verb without using att.
Why is 'went' translated as åkte instead of gick?
While both can translate to 'went', gå (past tense gick) usually means walking on foot. Åka (past tense åkte) is used when travelling by some form of vehicle or transport, which is the expected way to talk about going to a holiday cottage.
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