Breakdown of Skiftarbetaren behöver sin sömn, medan hans fru jobbar.
jobba
to work
behöva
to need
hans
his
frun
the wife
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
medan
while
skiftarbetaren
the shift worker
sömnen
the sleep
Questions & Answers about Skiftarbetaren behöver sin sömn, medan hans fru jobbar.
How does medan function in this sentence?
In this sentence, medan acts as a contrastive subordinating conjunction meaning "whereas" or "while". It highlights the contrast between the shift worker needing sleep and his wife working. Because it introduces a subordinate clause, it changes the word order rules for that part of the sentence.
Why does the sentence use sin for "his sleep" but hans for "his wife"?
This is a perfect example of how Swedish reflexive possessives work! We use sin because the sleep belongs to the subject of that specific clause (Skiftarbetaren). However, in the second clause, the wife is the new subject. You can never use sin as part of a subject, so we have to use the standard possessive hans instead.
If we wanted to say his wife is not working, where would inte go in the second clause?
It would go before the verb: medan hans fru inte jobbar. Because medan introduces a subordinate clause, sentence adverbs like inte (not) or ofta (often) must be placed before the verb, rather than after it like they do in a main clause.
How is the word Skiftarbetaren put together?
It is a compound noun made of skift (shift) and arbetare (worker). Notice that to say "the shift worker", the definite suffix -n is only added to the very end of the complete compound word, giving us Skiftarbetaren.
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