Breakdown of Skiftarbetaren behöver rullgardinen, medan morgonmänniskan älskar solljuset.
älska
to love
behöva
to need
medan
while
morgonmänniskan
the morning person
skiftarbetaren
the shift worker
solljuset
the sunlight
rullgardinen
the roller blind
Questions & Answers about Skiftarbetaren behöver rullgardinen, medan morgonmänniskan älskar solljuset.
How do we know medan means "whereas" instead of "while" here?
In this sentence, medan sets up a direct contrast between two opposites (the shift worker and the morning person). While medan can also mean "while" (two things happening at the same time), the contrastive "whereas" meaning is very common when comparing different people, preferences, or situations.
Does medan change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
Yes, because medan is a subordinating conjunction, it starts a subordinate clause. Here, the order is subject (morgonmänniskan) then verb (älskar). If there were a sentence adverb like inte (not) or alltid (always), it would have to go before the verb in this clause, making it medan morgonmänniskan alltid älskar solljuset.
This sentence has a lot of long nouns! How do we make compound words definite in Swedish?
You only add the definite ending to the very last word in the compound. For example, morgonmänniskan is made of morgon (morning) and människa (person). Because människa is an en-word ending in a vowel, it takes the -n ending to become "the morning person". The first part (morgon) stays exactly the same.
Why is it skiftarbetaren and not "skiftarbetareen"?
The base word here is arbetare (worker). Nouns describing people that end in -are are en-words, and they just take a single -n to become definite. So skiftarbetare simply becomes skiftarbetaren.
What is the difference between a rullgardin and a regular gardin?
A gardin is a regular fabric window curtain. A rullgardin (literally "roll-curtain") is a roller blind or window shade. It fits perfectly in this sentence because shift workers rely on them to completely block out the daylight so they can sleep!
Learn Skiftarbetaren behöver rullgardinen, medan morgonmänniskan älskar solljuset and more in Swedish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free