Breakdown of Familjen i den där förorten blir allt mer trångbodd.
familjen
the family
i
in
bli
to become
den där
that (en)
mer
more
allt
increasingly
förorten
the suburb
trångbodd
overcrowded
Questions & Answers about Familjen i den där förorten blir allt mer trångbodd.
How does the phrase allt mer work here to mean "increasingly"?
Placing allt before a comparative adjective expresses an ongoing change, similar to "more and more" in English. We use mer (more) here because trångbodd is a long compound word that acts like a participle, so it takes mer rather than an -are ending to form its comparative.
How is the word trångbodd built?
It is a compound adjective combining trång (tight or cramped) and bodd (the past participle of bo, to live). It is a common Swedish term for describing people who are living in a space that is too small for them.
Why do we say den där förorten and not just den där förort?
When you use the demonstrative words den här (this) or den där (that), Swedish requires the following noun to be in its definite form. That is why we use the definite förorten (the suburb) instead of the indefinite förort.
Since a family has multiple people in it, why isn't the adjective in the plural form (trångbodda)?
Grammatically, the word familjen (the family) is singular. Adjectives must agree with the grammatical number of the noun, not the literal number of people. Because familj is a singular en-word, we use the singular form trångbodd.
Learn Familjen i den där förorten blir allt mer trångbodd and more in Swedish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free