Breakdown of Det är otillåtet att kopiera dokumentet samt programmet.
vara
to be
det
it (neuter)
att
to
programmet
the program
Questions & Answers about Det är otillåtet att kopiera dokumentet samt programmet.
Why does this sentence use samt instead of och?
Samt means "as well as" or "and also". It is a formal, written alternative to och (and). You will often see it in official rules, warnings, or legal texts like this sentence to clearly group items together. In everyday speech, people would almost always just say och.
How does the word otillåtet get its meaning?
It is built from the adjective tillåten, meaning "allowed" or "permitted". The prefix o- works just like "un-" or "not" in English, making it "unauthorized". Finally, it gets a -t at the end (otillåtet) to agree with the neutral "dummy" subject det at the start of the sentence.
Both dokumentet and programmet end in -et. Is this required when using samt?
They end in -et because they both happen to be neutral ett-words in their definite ("the") form: ett dokument becomes dokumentet, and ett program becomes programmet. While samt doesn't force them to be ett-words, it does connect them logically, meaning if one is specific ("the document"), the other is usually specific too ("the program").
Why do we need the word att before kopiera?