Breakdown of Nattugglan älskar mörkret, medan morgonmänniskan föredrar solljuset.
älska
to love
medan
while
mörkret
the darkness
föredra
to prefer
morgonmänniskan
the morning person
nattugglan
the night owl
solljuset
the sunlight
Questions & Answers about Nattugglan älskar mörkret, medan morgonmänniskan föredrar solljuset.
Does medan mean "while" as in time, or "whereas" as in a contrast?
It can mean both! Here, it is used to show a contrast between two different things, just like "whereas" or "while" in English. You will also see medan used to mean "while" in a time sense, such as doing one task while another is happening.
Does medan change the word order of the clause that follows it?
Yes, medan is a subordinating conjunction, which means it starts a subordinate clause (a dependent clause). If we added a short adverb like inte (not) or alltid (always), it would have to go before the verb in this clause: ...medan morgonmänniskan inte föredrar.... Since there is no extra adverb in this specific sentence, it looks just like normal Subject-Verb-Object order.
Why are so many words in this sentence in the definite form (the "the" form)?
In Swedish, when you are talking about a general category, species, or concept, you often use the definite form. English usually uses the plural or leaves out "the" (like "Night owls love darkness"), but Swedish often uses the singular definite for these general statements: nattugglan (the night owl) and mörkret (the darkness).
Why is it mörkret and not "mörkeret"?
Mörker (darkness) is an ett word ending in -er. When making it definite, we drop the final e in the root word before adding the -et ending to make it easier to say. So, ett mörker becomes mörkret.
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