Breakdown of Vad letar hon efter för dekoration?
hon
she
vad
what
leta efter
to look for (physical items, everyday)
vad ... för
what kind of
dekorationen
the decoration
Questions & Answers about Vad letar hon efter för dekoration?
How does the vad ... för construction work in this sentence?
The phrase vad för means "what kind of". In Swedish, it is very common to split these two words. Vad starts the question, and för is placed right before the noun it describes (in this case, dekoration).
Why are there two prepositions (efter and för) right next to each other?
They belong to different grammatical parts of the sentence! Letar efter is a phrasal verb meaning "looking for", so efter stays closely tied to the action. The word för belongs to the split question structure vad ... för (what kind of) and must go directly before the noun dekoration.
Can I keep vad för together instead of splitting it?
Yes, you can say Vad för dekoration letar hon efter? This means the exact same thing. However, splitting them like in our example sentence is extremely common in everyday Swedish, so it is important to get comfortable with this separated word order.
Doesn't för usually mean "for"? Why do we use efter to mean "looking for"?
This is a great example of why we cannot translate prepositions word-for-word! While English uses "look for", the Swedish phrasal verb is always letar efter (literally "search after"). The word för in this sentence has nothing to do with the English word "for" — it is simply a fixed piece of the vad ... för (what kind of) expression.
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