Breakdown of Jag skulle aldrig förolämpa din gamla vän.
jag
I
vännen
the friend
aldrig
never
gammal
old
din
your (singular)
skulle
would
förolämpa
to insult
Questions & Answers about Jag skulle aldrig förolämpa din gamla vän.
Why does aldrig come between skulle and förolämpa?
In a main clause, a sentence adverb like aldrig comes after the first verb (skulle) and before the second verb (förolämpa). This contrasts with the infinitive phrases you are learning in this lesson, where the adverb goes before the infinitive marker, such as att aldrig förolämpa (to never insult).
Why is it gamla vän instead of gammal vän when the friend is a singular en-word?
Because it comes after a possessive pronoun (din). Possessives trigger the definite form of the adjective, which almost always ends in -a. Remember that after a possessive, the noun itself stays in the indefinite form (vän, not vännen).
Does skulle mean 'should' or 'would' here?
In this context, skulle means 'would', expressing a conditional idea (something you wouldn't do). While it is the past tense of ska (shall/will), skulle is the most common way to say 'would'. If you want to say 'should', you generally use the verb borde instead.
Why isn't there an att (to) before förolämpa?
Because skulle acts as a modal verb here. Just like in English (where we say 'would insult', not 'would to insult'), Swedish modal verbs are followed directly by the bare infinitive of the main verb without att.
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