Breakdown of Livvakten har fienden bakom sig.
ha
to have
sig
oneself / himself / herself / themselves
bakom
behind
livvakten
the bodyguard
fienden
the enemy
Questions & Answers about Livvakten har fienden bakom sig.
Why does this sentence use sig instead of honom if the translation says 'behind him'?
In Swedish, when a pronoun in a prepositional phrase refers back to the subject of the same clause, you must use a reflexive pronoun. Since livvakten is the subject and is a third-person noun (he/she), we use sig. If we used honom here, it would mean the bodyguard had the enemy behind some other man.
Both livvakten and fienden are definite forms. Why does fienden end in just -n instead of -en?
The base word for enemy is en fiende. Because it already ends in a vowel (-e), we only add -n to make it definite (fienden). This is standard for en-words ending in a vowel to avoid an awkward double vowel.
How do we know that livvakt is an en-word?
Livvakt is a compound word made of liv (life) and vakt (guard). In Swedish, the gender of a compound word is always determined by its final part. Since en vakt is an en-word, livvakt takes the same gender and becomes livvakten in the definite form.
Can ha något bakom sig be used metaphorically like in English?
Yes, absolutely! Just like in English, you can use bakom sig for physical space, as in this sentence, but also for time and experiences. For example, you could say han har ett svårt år bakom sig (he has a difficult year behind him).
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