Breakdown of Vi har inte använt skivspelaren på många år.
vi
we
inte
not
ha
to have
många
many
året
the year
använda
to use
på
in/within (a period of time)
skivspelaren
the record player
Questions & Answers about Vi har inte använt skivspelaren på många år.
Why do we use på here for "for", instead of i?
In Swedish, when you state how long something has not happened (a negative sentence), you use på for the duration. If this were a positive sentence ("We have used it for many years"), you would use i instead (i många år).
Since the sentence says "many", why isn't år in a plural form?
År is the plural form here! Because år is an ett word that ends in a consonant (ett år), its plural form is exactly the same as its singular form. You know it means "years" because it comes right after många (many).
How is the word skivspelaren built?
It's a compound word made of skiva (record or disc) and spelare (player). The -n at the end is the definite article, making it "the record player". Notice that the final -a in skiva is dropped to connect the words smoothly.
Could we say sedan många år instead?
No, sedan (since) is used to point to a specific starting point in time, like a year (sedan 2015) or a day (sedan i måndags). When you are talking about an amount of time in a negative sentence, you must use på.
Why does inte go between har and använt?
In a standard main clause, the negation inte goes immediately after the first, conjugated verb. Here, har is that first verb, so inte steps right in between the helper verb (har) and the main verb (använt).
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