Breakdown of Vad oväntat att hon kom tillbaka!
hon
she
komma tillbaka
to come back
att
that
vad
how (in exclamations)
oväntad
unexpected
Questions & Answers about Vad oväntat att hon kom tillbaka!
Why does the sentence start with Vad when the English translation uses 'How'?
In Swedish exclamations, Vad followed by an adjective or adverb translates to 'How' in English. While you use hur for actual questions (like 'How did she do it?'), vad is the required word for exclamatory clauses like Vad oväntat! (How unexpected!).
Why does oväntat end with a -t here?
It ends in -t because it describes the entire situation ('that she came back') rather than a specific 'en' word. When an adjective describes a whole clause, an action, or a general 'it', Swedish requires the neuter -t form.
Does the word order for kom tillbaka change because it is in a subordinate clause?
Komma tillbaka (to come back) is a particle verb, so the particle tillbaka always follows the verb kom. Because the second half of this sentence starts with att (that), it is a subordinate clause. This means if you wanted to make it negative, the word inte would squeeze in before the verb: att hon inte kom tillbaka.
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