Breakdown of Grunden till huset är gammal.
vara
to be
huset
the house
till
to (direction, destination)
gammal
old
grunden
the foundation, the basis
Questions & Answers about Grunden till huset är gammal.
Why do we use till here instead of av for "of the house"?
In Swedish, when expressing that a physical part belongs to a whole (like the foundation of a house, the door of a room, or the keys to a car), you typically use till. Using av here would sound unnatural to a native speaker.
Since huset is an ett-word, why is the adjective gammal instead of gammalt?
The adjective gammal describes grunden (the foundation), which is an en-word. It does not describe huset (the house). Even though huset is closer to the verb, the main subject is grunden, so the adjective must agree with it.
Does the word grunden have other meanings in Swedish?
Yes! As a noun, en grund means a physical foundation like in this sentence, but it is also widely used abstractly to mean a "basis," "reason," or "cause." Additionally, grund can be an adjective meaning "shallow" (like shallow water).
If I wanted to say "the foundations of the houses," how would grunden change?
The plural of en grund is grunder. To say "the foundations," you use the definite plural form grunderna. The whole phrase would become grunderna till husen.
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