Word
De hade prioriterat dels sin fritid, dels sin hälsa.
Meaning
They had prioritized partly their free time, partly their health.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De hade prioriterat dels sin fritid, dels sin hälsa.
de
they
ha
to have
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
hälsan
the health
Questions & Answers about De hade prioriterat dels sin fritid, dels sin hälsa.
How do we use dels ..., dels ... in this sentence? Can it be used for more than two things?
It acts as a pair of conjunctions meaning 'partly X, and partly Y' or 'for one thing X, and for another Y'. It is used here to present two equally important factors that were prioritized. It is almost exclusively used as a pair for exactly two items, rather than a long list.
What happens to the word order if I want to start the sentence with Dels?
If you put Dels at the very beginning of the clause for emphasis, it counts as the first position and triggers the V2 rule, meaning the verb must come second. The sentence would become: Dels hade de prioriterat sin fritid, dels sin hälsa. Notice how the verb hade swaps places with the subject de.
Why does the sentence use sin instead of deras for 'their'?
sin is a reflexive possessive pronoun, which means it refers back to the subject of the same clause (in this case, De). It effectively means 'their own'. If you used deras here, it would imply that they prioritized someone else's free time and health!
Why is the form sin used for both nouns, rather than sitt or sina?