Breakdown of Att misslyckas en gång betyder inte slutet.
en
a, an (common)
inte
not
att
to (before a verb)
slutet
the ending
gången
the time (occurrence)
betyda
to mean, to signify
misslyckas
to fail
Questions & Answers about Att misslyckas en gång betyder inte slutet.
Why is the verb betyder placed right after the phrase Att misslyckas en gång?
In Swedish, the verb must be the second block of information in a main clause, known as the V2 rule. Here, the entire infinitive phrase Att misslyckas en gång (To fail once) acts as the syntactic subject and counts as block number one. Therefore, the verb betyder must come immediately after it in position two.
Why does the verb misslyckas end in an -s? Is it passive?
No, it is not passive. Misslyckas is a deponent verb. These are verbs that always end in an -s but have an active meaning. You have probably seen others like this, such as hoppas (to hope) or minnas (to remember).
Why does inte come after the verb betyder?
In a Swedish main clause, the negation inte usually comes directly after the finite verb. Because the long subject Att misslyckas en gång takes up the first position and pushes the verb betyder to the second position, inte naturally falls into the third position.
Why is it slutet instead of just slut?
Slutet is the definite form of the noun ett slut (an end). Just like in English where we say does not mean 'the' end, Swedish uses the definite form here by adding the -et suffix.
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