Breakdown of Vi väntar. Forskningsprojektet testar nämligen hypotesen.
vi
we
vänta
to wait / to expect (a baby)
projektet
the project
testa
to test
forskningen
the research
nämligen
namely / because (explanatory adverb)
hypotesen
the hypothesis
Questions & Answers about Vi väntar. Forskningsprojektet testar nämligen hypotesen.
Why does nämligen come after the verb testar instead of at the beginning of the sentence like 'because' would in English?
Nämligen is a sentence adverb, not a conjunction. Because Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule (the verb must be in the second position), sentence adverbs like nämligen are placed immediately after the finite verb testar. You cannot start a sentence with nämligen.
The English translation says 'you see', but doesn't nämligen mean 'namely'?
It translates to both. In Swedish, nämligen is heavily used to explain or justify the immediately preceding statement (we are waiting because...). English doesn't have a perfect equivalent that sits in the middle of the sentence like this, so we often translate the feeling with 'you see', 'the thing is', or by simply starting the English translation with 'Because'.
Why is there an 's' in the middle of Forskningsprojektet?
The s is a linking consonant used to glue the two nouns forskning (research) and projektet (the project) together into a compound word. It is especially common to add a binding s when the first word in the compound ends in -ing.
Is hypotesen an en-word or an ett-word, and is there a rule for this type of scientific word?
Hypotes is an en-word, which is why it takes the -en ending here to mean 'the hypothesis'. While loanwords can sometimes be unpredictable, Greek and Latin loanwords ending in -es (like hypotes, parentes, process) are almost always en-words in Swedish.
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