Breakdown of Hon var lycklig hela sitt liv.
vara
to be
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
hel
whole
livet
the life
lycklig
happy (deeply), fortunate
Questions & Answers about Hon var lycklig hela sitt liv.
Why does the sentence use sitt instead of hennes for "her"?
Sitt is a reflexive possessive pronoun, which means it refers back to the subject of the same clause. Because "she" (Hon) is the subject and she is living her own life, you must use sitt. If you used hennes here, it would sound like she was happy for some other woman's life! We use sitt instead of sin because liv is an ett-word.
Could I use glad instead of lycklig to mean "happy" here?
You could, but it changes the nuance. Glad usually refers to a temporary feeling of being cheerful, upbeat, or in a good mood. Lycklig describes a deeper, more profound sense of true happiness or good fortune, which is much more natural when you are describing someone's entire life.
Why is it hela sitt liv and not hela sitt livet?
In Swedish, whenever you use a possessive word (like sitt, min, hans), the noun that follows it must be in the indefinite form. So even though you are talking about a specific life, the grammatical rule requires the indefinite liv after sitt, never the definite livet.
Do I need a preposition like i or under before hela sitt liv?
No, you don't need one. Just like the English phrase "her whole life," Swedish can often express a continuous duration of time by simply stating the time phrase without a preposition. While you could say under hela sitt liv (during her whole life), dropping the preposition is very common and completely natural.
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