Breakdown of De bär masken som om de vore osynliga.
vara
to be
de
they
osynlig
invisible
bära
to carry
som om
as if
masken
the mask
Questions & Answers about De bär masken som om de vore osynliga.
Why does this sentence use vore instead of var?
The phrase som om (as if) sets up a hypothetical or unreal situation. In Swedish, we often use the special subjunctive form vore (were / would be) instead of the normal past tense var to show that something is just imagined. This matches the English use of "were" in "as if they were".
Why is the adjective osynliga instead of just osynlig?
Adjectives in Swedish have to agree with the noun or pronoun they describe. Because the subject of the second clause is the plural de (they), the adjective osynlig takes the plural ending -a.
If I wanted to add inte (not) to the second part of the sentence, where would it go?
It would go right before the verb: som om de inte vore osynliga. Because som om introduces a subordinate clause (a subclause), Swedish word order rules dictate that sentence adverbs like inte must come before the verb.
Why does the sentence say masken (the mask) in singular, when "they" are wearing it?
In Swedish, when a group of people is doing something with a type of object that they each have one of (like a mask or a hat), it is very common to use the singular definite form. English usually switches to the plural ("masks") or uses a possessive ("their masks"), but Swedish often just treats it as a general singular concept.
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