Questions & Answers about Vi vandrar genom ravinen.
Why is vandrar translated as "hike" rather than "wander"?
While att vandra shares a root with the English word "wander", in Swedish it usually means to hike or walk a long distance, especially in nature. If you want to say "wander aimlessly", you would more likely use att ströva or att driva omkring.
Since this lesson covers path prepositions, how would the meaning change if we used längs med instead of genom here?
If you say Vi vandrar längs med ravinen, it means "We hike along the ravine." Because a ravine is a deep valley, walking genom (through) implies you are down inside it, whereas längs med implies you are walking on the upper edge right next to it.
Does the preposition genom force the noun into the definite form (ravinen)?
No, Swedish prepositions don't dictate whether a noun is definite or indefinite. We use the definite form ravinen (the ravine) simply because the speaker is talking about a specific, known ravine. If they were hiking through any ravine, it would be genom en ravin.
Can genom only be used for physical movement through a space?
It is heavily used for physical movement (like hiking through a ravine or walking through a door), but you will also see it used abstractly to mean "by means of" or "through a process", much like in English. For example, you might see genom att träna (by/through practicing).