Breakdown of Vi använder mikroskopet. Vi vill nämligen observera bakterien.
vi
we
vilja
to want to
använda
to use
bakterien
the bacterium
Questions & Answers about Vi använder mikroskopet. Vi vill nämligen observera bakterien.
Why does nämligen come after vill instead of at the beginning of the sentence?
Nämligen is a sentence adverb, not a conjunction like eftersom (because). In a Swedish main clause, sentence adverbs must be placed right after the first verb, which in this sentence is vill. It cannot be used to start a sentence to mean 'Because...'
The English translation puts 'you see' at the end. Why isn't there a matching word at the end of the Swedish sentence?
That 'you see' is actually the translation of nämligen. In Swedish, nämligen is used to explain or justify the previous sentence. While English often expresses this idea by tacking 'you see' onto the end of a thought, Swedish embeds it directly into the middle of the clause as an adverb.
Why is the verb observera in its infinitive form rather than the present tense?
It follows the modal verb vill (want to). Modal verbs in Swedish are always followed by the bare infinitive of the next verb, so we use observera instead of the present tense observerar.
I noticed that mikroskopet ends in -et but bakterien ends in -en. Are they different noun types?