Breakdown of Tjejen i klassen heter Sara.
heta
to be called
klassen
the class
tjejen
the girl (informal, also of adult women)
Questions & Answers about Tjejen i klassen heter Sara.
Wait, isn't heter the fourth word here? I thought verbs had to be in the second position in Swedish.
Swedish does use the V2 (verb-second) rule, but the first position is not always just a single word. It can be a whole grammatical block. Here, the entire noun phrase Tjejen i klassen acts as the subject and occupies the first position. Therefore, the verb heter is correctly placed in the second position.
Why use tjejen instead of flickan here?
Tjej is a more relaxed, everyday word for girl compared to flicka. In modern spoken Swedish, you will hear tjej far more often. It can also refer to a girlfriend or a young woman, whereas flicka usually refers strictly to a younger female child.
Why do we use the preposition i for i klassen? Could I use på?
When referring to a class as a group of students, you use i, just like saying 'in the class' in English. You would use på when referring to an ongoing lesson or event, such as på lektionen (at/in the lesson).
Why doesn't heter end in an -s if it translates to the passive phrase 'is called'?
The Swedish verb heta is an active verb that inherently means 'to have the name'. Unlike English, which uses the passive construction 'is called', Swedish just uses a normal active verb. Therefore, it does not need a passive -s ending.
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