Breakdown of Smärtan var så intensiv att patienten svimmade.
vara
to be
så
so
att
that
patienten
the patient
Questions & Answers about Smärtan var så intensiv att patienten svimmade.
How does the "så ... att" structure work in this sentence?
This construction links an extreme degree of something to its result. The word så (so) modifies the adjective intensiv to show a high degree of pain, and att (that) introduces the consequence of that pain: the patient fainted. It works exactly like "so ... that" in English.
Why is the adjective written as "intensiv" and not "intensivt"?
Because it describes smärtan (the pain). The base noun is en smärta (an en-word). Even though the adjective comes after the verb var (was), it still has to agree with the noun it describes, so we use the en-word form intensiv.
Is the base form of the first word "smärt"?
No, the base noun is en smärta (a pain). Because it is an en-word that already ends in a vowel, you only need to add -n to make it definite ("the pain"), which gives us smärtan.
What is the word order inside the "att" clause?
The word att introduces a subordinate clause (subclause). In Swedish subclauses, the subject (patienten) comes immediately after the subjunction, followed by the verb (svimmade). Remember that if you added a sentence adverb like inte (not), it would have to go before the verb in a subclause: att patienten inte svimmade.