Questions & Answers about Snön faller längs nacken.
Why does the translation say 'his neck' when the Swedish says nacken (the neck)?
In Swedish, you usually don't use possessive pronouns (like my, his, or her) for body parts or clothing if it's obvious who they belong to. Instead, you use the definite form. So nacken (the neck) is used instead of hans nacke. Without more context, this could also mean 'my neck' or 'her neck'!
Does nacken just mean 'neck' in general?
No, Swedish distinguishes between the front and back of the neck. Nacken is specifically the back of the neck. If you were talking about the front of the neck or the throat, you would use halsen.
Why translate längs as 'down' instead of 'along'?
Längs literally means 'along', describing a path parallel to a surface. While 'along the neck' makes literal sense, 'down the back of the neck' is just the natural English phrasing for this specific situation.
Why is the definite form snön and not snöen?
Snö (snow) is an en-word that ends in a vowel. To make it definite, you just add an -n instead of -en to avoid an awkward double vowel.
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