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Grabben spelade fotboll hela dagen.

Grabben spelade fotboll hela dagen.
The lad played football all day.
From Lesson 189:Everyday spoken Swedish (snacka, funka, grejen)·Swedish

Questions & Answers about Grabben spelade fotboll hela dagen.

I usually see pojke or kille for boy. Is grabb different?
Grabb is a very common, slightly colloquial word for a boy or lad. It has a casual, friendly feel, similar to saying lad or guy in English, whereas pojke is the standard neutral word for boy.
Why is it hela dagen and not hela dag?
In Swedish, when you use hela to mean the whole or all of something, the noun that follows must be in its definite form. So all day or the whole day translates to hela dagen (literally: whole day-the).
Doesn't hela need a separate definite article before it, like den hela dagen?
No, hela is an exception to the usual double definite rule. It directly points to a specific thing without needing the separate definite article (den, det, or de). You just use hela plus the definite noun.
Could I put hela dagen at the start of the sentence?
Yes! If you want to emphasize the time, you can say Hela dagen spelade grabben fotboll. Remember that Swedish uses the V2 rule, so the verb spelade must stay in the second position, pushing the subject grabben to right after the verb.

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