Questions & Answers about Hon kan inte ha gömt giftet i gömstället.
Why do we use kan inte ha gömt here instead of måste inte ha gömt for a strong negative deduction?
In Swedish, to say that something is logically impossible in the past (like 'she can't have' or 'she couldn't have'), we use kan inte ha + supine. While English speakers sometimes say 'she must not have hidden it', using måste inte in Swedish usually means 'does not have to' (lack of obligation), not a deduction of impossibility. So, kan inte ha is the correct epistemic choice here.
Why does inte come immediately after kan rather than later in the verb chain?
In a main clause, the sentence adverb (like inte) generally goes right after the first finite verb. Here, kan is the finite verb, so inte must precede the infinitive ha and the supine gömt.
How is the word gömstället formed, and how does it relate to the verb in this sentence?
It is a compound noun made from the verb root göm- (from gömma, meaning 'to hide') and the noun ställe (meaning 'place'). Since ett ställe is an ett-word ending in a vowel, it takes a -t in the definite form, becoming gömstället (the hiding place). You can see the same root in the supine verb gömt earlier in the sentence.
Doesn't gift mean 'married'? How do we know it means 'poison' here?