Questions & Answers about Är lampan borta nu?
Why is it borta instead of bort?
In Swedish, borta describes a fixed position or state (being away or gone), while bort is used for movement (going away). Because the lamp is not moving, but is simply in a state of being gone, we use the positional adverb borta.
Does borta always mean "gone" or "missing"?
For objects like lampan, it usually means "missing", "lost", or "removed". However, if you are talking about a person, saying they are borta often just means they are away from home, such as running an errand or traveling.
I know lampa is an en-word. Why is the definite form lampan instead of lampen?
When an en-word ends in the letter -a, like lampa, you drop that final -a and add -an to make it definite (the lamp). Adding -en directly would create lampaen, which is awkward to pronounce, so it becomes lampan.
If I wanted to answer this question with a statement starting with nu ("Now the lamp is gone"), what is the word order?
You would say: Nu är lampan borta. Because Swedish uses the V2 rule in statements, the verb är must take the second position, directly after the time word nu.
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