Questions & Answers about Avsikten var att inte väcka den lilla flickan.
Why does inte come right after att instead of after the verb?
In Swedish, when you negate an infinitive verb (a verb with att), the negation inte goes between att and the verb. This makes the phrase att inte väcka. This placement rule also applies to other sentence adverbs like alltid (always) or aldrig (never) when used with an infinitive.
Why are we using väcka instead of vakna for the verb wake?
Väcka means to wake someone else up, which requires an object (in this case, den lilla flickan). Vakna means to wake up on your own, without a direct object. Since the intention was to act on the girl, we must use väcka.
Why do we need den in den lilla flickan? Isn't flickan already definite?
Yes, but Swedish uses a structure often called double definiteness. When you add an adjective before a definite noun like flickan, you must also add a freestanding definite article before the adjective. For an en-word, that article is den.
Why is the adjective lilla used here instead of liten?