Breakdown of I takt med att staden växte, byggde man ut avloppet.
staden
the city
man
one, you (people in general)
ut
out (motion)
bygga
to build
Questions & Answers about I takt med att staden växte, byggde man ut avloppet.
What does i takt med att literally mean, and why use it here instead of just medan (while)?
It literally translates to "in pace with that". You use i takt med att to show tandem progression, meaning two things are developing or changing together. While medan just indicates two things happening at the same time, i takt med att emphasizes that the sewer expansion was directly driven by, or proportional to, the city's growth.
Why use the phrasal verb byggde ut instead of just byggde?
Bygga ut means to expand or to extend. If you just used byggde (built), it would imply they built a completely new sewer from scratch. Adding the particle ut (out) specifies that they were enlarging an existing system.
Why is the word order byggde man instead of man byggde in the main clause?
This is a classic application of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire subordinate clause (I takt med att staden växte) acts as the first block of information. Because it takes up the first position, the main clause must start immediately with the verb (byggde) so the verb remains in the second position overall.
The translation says "they expanded", but the Swedish sentence uses man. Could I use de instead?