Breakdown of Hon hinner stänga fönstret bakom sig.
hon
she
fönstret
the window
sig
oneself / himself / herself / themselves
stänga
to close
bakom
behind
hinna
to have time to
Questions & Answers about Hon hinner stänga fönstret bakom sig.
Why is it bakom sig and not bakom henne?
In Swedish, when a prepositional phrase relates back to the third-person subject of the sentence, you use the reflexive pronoun. Since hon (she) is the subject, she is closing the window behind herself, which translates to sig. If you used henne, it would mean she is closing the window behind a completely different woman!
What does the verb hinner mean, and why isn't it translated as a single word?
Hinner is a hugely useful Swedish verb that means "to have enough time to do something" or "to make it in time." English doesn't have a single verb for this concept. In this sentence, it means she successfully manages to close the window before something else happens (like a storm starting).
Why is there no att (to) before stänga (close)?
The verb hinner acts similarly to a modal verb (like kan or måste) in that it is followed directly by the infinitive form of the next verb. You never use att after hinner, so it is simply hinner stänga.
How does the word fönster become fönstret for "the window"?
Fönster is an ett word. Normally, you add -et to make an ett word definite, which would give you fönsteret. However, for words ending in -er, Swedish drops the extra e to make pronunciation smoother, resulting in fönstret.
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