Learn Swedish: Vad sa du att han menade med ett tvetydigt svar? - What did you say he meant by an ambiguous answer?

This is the core of a sentence intertwining (satsfläta). The question word Vad logically belongs to the subordinate clause as the object of what he meant. However, to ask a direct question about that specific part, Swedish extracts the question word all the way to the front of the main clause. The main clause then applies the V2 rule, placing the verb sa immediately after Vad.

Where would a negation like inte go if I wanted to ask what he didn't mean?

It would go right before the verb in the subordinate clause: Vad sa du att han inte menade...? Even though the object (Vad) has been extracted to the front of the sentence, the rest of the subordinate clause still strictly follows the BIFF rule, meaning sentence adverbs like inte must come before the finite verb.

Why do we use the preposition med here instead of a direct translation for the English word 'by'?

In Swedish, the set phrase for 'to mean by something' is att mena med något. While English uses 'by', you can think of the Swedish phrasing literally as meaning 'with'. You will see this often in common questions like Vad menar du med det? (What do you mean by that?).

How is the adjective tvetydigt constructed?