Word
Polisen tror han ljuger, eftersom han var där.
Meaning
The police think he is lying, because he was there.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Polisen tror han ljuger, eftersom han var där.
Where is the word for 'that' in the first part of the sentence?
It has been omitted! Just like in English ('The police think [that] he is lying'), you can often drop the word att in Swedish when it introduces an object clause. This is very common in everyday speech and writing, especially after verbs like tror (think/believe), tycker (have an opinion), and säger (say).
Why does the Swedish sentence treat the police as singular when the English translation says 'The police think'?
In Swedish, polisen is a singular noun that refers to the police force as a single institution. It behaves like any normal singular noun, unlike English where 'police' is treated as a plural group. If you wanted to talk about multiple individual officers, you would use the plural form poliserna.
Does eftersom change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
Yes, eftersom (because) always introduces a subordinate clause, which has specific word order rules. In this exact sentence (han var där), it happens to look identical to a main clause. However, if you added a sentence adverb like inte (not), it would have to go before the verb: eftersom han inte var där.
Could I use för att instead of eftersom here?