Breakdown of Hennes knä blev svullet efter olyckan.
hennes
her (possessive)
bli
to become
efter
after
olyckan
the accident
knät
the knee
svullen
swollen
Questions & Answers about Hennes knä blev svullet efter olyckan.
Why is the adjective svullet instead of "svullent"?
The base form of the adjective is svullen (swollen). Since it describes knä, which is an ett word, it needs a neuter ending. For adjectives ending in an unstressed -en, we drop the -n and replace it with a -t. This gives us svullet.
We are talking about a specific knee, so why is it Hennes knä instead of the definite form Hennes knät?
In Swedish, whenever you use a possessive pronoun like hennes (her), hans (his), or min (my), the noun that follows must be in its indefinite form. Even though the meaning is specific, the grammar requires the indefinite knä.
Could I use var (was) instead of blev (became) here?
You could say Hennes knä var svullet (Her knee was swollen), but using blev emphasizes the change of state. It shows that the knee got or became swollen as a direct reaction to the accident, which sounds much more natural in this context.
How would this sentence change if both of her knees became swollen?
It would become Hennes knän blev svullna efter olyckan. The plural of the ett word knä is knän. The adjective svullen also changes to its plural form, svullna, dropping the -en and adding -na.
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