Questions & Answers about Han brukade flirta med alla.
The current lesson is about left-dislocation. How could we rewrite this sentence to emphasize 'everyone' using that structure?
You would move the object to the front, followed by a comma and a resumptive pronoun referring back to it. It would look like this: Alla, dem brukade han flirta med. (Everyone, them he used to flirt with). Notice that because dem is the object of the preposition med, it takes the object form, and the verb brukade comes right after the pronoun to satisfy the V2 (verb-second) rule.
Why do we use brukade here instead of använde for 'used'?
English uses 'used' in two very different ways: for past habits ('used to do') and for utilizing a tool ('used a hammer'). In Swedish, these are completely different verbs. Bruka (past tense brukade) is specifically for habits or things you usually do. If he were using a physical object, you would use använda (past tense använde).
Does alla here mean 'all' or 'everyone'?
Here, alla acts as an independent pronoun meaning 'everyone' or 'everybody.' When used on its own without a following noun, it almost always refers to people. If you wanted to say 'all of...' it would usually modify a noun, like alla vänner (all the friends).
I sometimes see flörta instead of flirta. Which one is correct?
Both are perfectly correct and mean exactly the same thing. Flirta is the original spelling borrowed directly from English, while flörta is a Swedified spelling that matches how the word is actually pronounced with a Swedish accent. You can use whichever you prefer.
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