Breakdown of Vi brukar roa oss genom att spela brädspel.
vi
we
spela
to play
bruka
to usually do
brädspelet
the board game
genom att
by
roa sig
to amuse oneself
Questions & Answers about Vi brukar roa oss genom att spela brädspel.
Why do we need oss after roa?
Roa on its own means "to amuse" or "to entertain" someone else. To express that you are having fun or amusing yourself, Swedish uses it as a reflexive verb, roa sig. Because the subject of our sentence is Vi (we), the reflexive pronoun must match it, becoming oss.
Why is it genom att spela instead of a direct translation for the "-ing" word "playing"?
English frequently uses prepositions followed by an "-ing" verb, like "by playing". Swedish does not have this gerund form. Instead, when a verb follows a preposition like genom (through/by), you must use att (to) plus the infinitive form of the verb. Literally, the Swedish phrasing translates to "through to play".
Why isn't there an att (to) between brukar and roa?
Brukar works as an auxiliary (helping) verb that means "to be in the habit of". Just like with kan (can) or vill (want to), auxiliary verbs are followed directly by the bare infinitive of the next verb, so no att is needed before roa.
How can we tell that brädspel means "board games" in the plural here, since it has no plural ending?
The root word spel is an ett-word that ends in a consonant (ett spel). In Swedish, ett-words ending in a consonant look exactly the same in the indefinite plural as they do in the singular. Context tells us they are playing board games in general, rather than one single game.
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