Word
Familjen låter kaklet bytas av rörmokaren.
Meaning
The family is having the tiles replaced by the plumber.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Familjen låter kaklet bytas av rörmokaren.
familjen
the family
av
of, by / from (cause)
byta
to change
låta
to let, allow
Questions & Answers about Familjen låter kaklet bytas av rörmokaren.
Why is bytas in the passive infinitive form here instead of just byta?
This is the causative passive construction. The family is not doing the replacing themselves; they are arranging for it to be done. We use låter (has) + the object (kaklet) + the passive infinitive (bytas) to express 'having something done.' If you used the active infinitive byta, it would grammatically mean the tiles are the ones replacing something else!
How do we know who is actually doing the work in this passive construction?
Because bytas is a passive verb, the person performing the action (the agent) is introduced with the preposition av (by). This matches English perfectly: the tiles are being replaced av rörmokaren (by the plumber).
The basic word for tile is kakel. Why does it become kaklet here?
Kakel is an ett-word ending in -el. When these words take the definite suffix -et, they drop the final e in the stem to make pronunciation easier, resulting in kaklet. Also notice that Swedish treats kakel as an uncountable singular mass noun, whereas English uses the plural 'tiles'.
Can I use the verb få instead of låta to express 'having something done'?