Breakdown of Maratonet blev förstört av den starka motvinden.
den
the (with en-words)
stark
strong / spicy (of food)
bli
to become
av
of, by / from (cause)
förstörd
destroyed
maratonet
the marathon
motvinden
the headwind
Questions & Answers about Maratonet blev förstört av den starka motvinden.
Why is blev förstört used here instead of the s-passive förstördes?
Both are grammatically correct and mean 'was ruined'. However, the bli passive (using the verb bli plus a past participle) often emphasizes the result of an action or a sudden change of state, whereas the s-passive emphasizes the action itself. For describing the final outcome of an event like a marathon being ruined, blev förstört sounds very natural.
Why does förstört end in a -t here?
When you use the bli passive, the main verb acts like an adjective and must agree with the subject in gender and number. Because maraton is an ett word (as seen in the definite form maratonet), the past participle förstörd gets a -t added to become förstört.
The word motvinden means 'the headwind'. How does the prefix mot- work here?
The prefix mot- translates to 'against' or 'counter' in English. A wind blowing against you is a motvind. The exact opposite, a tailwind that helps push you forward, is called a medvind (using the prefix med- meaning 'with').
As a quick refresher, why do we say den starka motvinden instead of just den starka motvind?
In Swedish, when a definite noun is modified by an adjective, you must use the double definite construction. You need the independent definite article (den), the adjective with its definite ending (starka), and the definite suffix on the noun itself (-en in motvinden).
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