Breakdown of Lakritsen är ju antagligen inte lika seg som kolan i godisbutiken.
vara
to be
inte
not
i
in
ju
as you know / of course
lika
equally / as
som
as (in comparisons)
antagligen
probably (presumably)
kolan
the toffee
godisbutiken
the candy shop
seg
chewy
lakritsen
the licorice
Questions & Answers about Lakritsen är ju antagligen inte lika seg som kolan i godisbutiken.
How do we know what order to put ju, antagligen, and inte in?
When multiple sentence adverbs cluster together in the midfield, they follow a general hierarchy. 'Lighter' attitude or consensus words like ju go first. Next come adverbs of probability or time, like antagligen. Negations like inte usually come last in the group. Think of it as: Attitude -> Probability -> Negation.
Why is 'of course' translated as ju instead of förstås, and why isn't it at the end of the sentence?
Ju is a modal particle signaling shared knowledge ('as we both know' or 'as you can see'). Unlike 'of course' in English, which can float to the end of a sentence, ju is strictly a sentence adverb. In a main clause, it must sit right after the finite verb (here, är). While förstås also means 'of course', ju feels more conversationally integrated and binds the speaker and listener together.
Could I swap antagligen and inte if I wanted to?
In a main clause like this, antagligen must come before inte. The adverb that comes first modifies the one that follows. Placing antagligen before inte correctly means 'it is probable that it is not...'. If you tried to say inte antagligen, it would sound unnatural; to express 'it is not probable', you would use a different structure entirely, like det är inte troligt.
Why are lakritsen and kolan in the definite form when English might just say 'Licorice is not as chewy as toffee'?
English often uses uncountable nouns in a general sense without 'the', but this Swedish sentence is comparing specific items right there in the candy shop. If this were a general statement about all licorice and all toffee everywhere, Swedish would also drop the definite suffix and say lakrits är... inte lika seg som kola.
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