Word
Hon brukade skolka utan att berätta för läraren.
Meaning
She used to skip school without telling the teacher.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hon brukade skolka utan att berätta för läraren.
hon
she
att
to (before a verb)
berätta
to tell
för
for, to
Questions & Answers about Hon brukade skolka utan att berätta för läraren.
Why is skolka not in the past tense if this happened in the past?
The verb brukade (used to) already shows that this is a past habitual action. Just like in English where we say "used to skip" and not "used to skipped", Swedish uses brukade followed by the bare infinitive skolka.
The English translation says "without telling", so why does the Swedish sentence use att berätta (to tell)?
Swedish doesn't have an "-ing" form that works like English in this situation. When you want to express "without doing" something, you must use the phrase utan att followed by the infinitive verb. Literally, it translates to "without to tell".
Why do we need the word för before läraren?
The verb berätta (to tell) requires the preposition för when you are mentioning who you are telling the information to. You can't just say berätta läraren; you must say berätta för läraren (literally "tell for the teacher").
Does skolka just mean "to skip", or is it specific to school?
Skolka specifically means to skip school or play truant (notice how it looks a bit like skola). If you want to talk about skipping a different event, like a meeting or a meal, you would use a different phrase, like hoppa över.