Question 1

Why is it hade börjat (had started) instead of har börjat (has started)?

Accepted Answer

This relates to how we shift tenses when reporting events in the past. At the time, the spokesperson's internal rule was probably: "I will not speak until the conference has started (har börjat)." Because we are narrating this from a past perspective (ville inte), the timeline shifts one step further back, turning the present perfect (har börjat) into the past perfect (hade börjat).

Question 2

Why do we use förrän for "until" here instead of tills?

Accepted Answer

In Swedish, förrän is exclusively used in negative contexts (clauses containing words like inte, aldrig, or ingen). Because the main clause is negative (ville inte uttala sig), you must use förrän. If the sentence were positive, like "They waited until the conference started," you would use tills.

Question 3

What role does sig play after uttala?

Accepted Answer

The base verb uttala simply means to "pronounce" (like pronouncing a word). However, when you make it reflexive (uttala sig), the meaning changes to "make a statement," "comment," or "express oneself." Since talespersonen (the spokesperson) is a third-person subject, we use the third-person reflexive pronoun sig.

Question 4

Why is inte placed before uttala sig rather than after?

Accepted Answer

This follows the standard word order for main clauses. When a main clause has a conjugated auxiliary verb (ville) and a main verb in the infinitive (uttala), the sentence adverb inte always goes right after the conjugated verb and before the infinitive. Therefore, it has to be ville inte uttala sig.

Talespersonen ville inte uttala sig förrän presskonferensen hade börjat.

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