Breakdown of Utomjordingen ska ha kraschat rymdskeppet i skogen.
i
in
ha
to have
skogen
the forest
utomjordingen
the alien
Questions & Answers about Utomjordingen ska ha kraschat rymdskeppet i skogen.
Why does ska translate to "reportedly" here instead of "will" or "shall"?
When recounting news, rumors, or unverified claims, Swedish uses ska to mean "is said to" or "reportedly". This is a special use of ska that shows the speaker is just passing on second-hand information, rather than talking about a future plan or an obligation.
How do we know the crash happened in the past if ska is a present-tense verb?
To report a past event using this "hearsay" structure, you pair ska with the perfect tense: ha + the supinum form of the verb (kraschat). It literally translates to "is said to have crashed". If the rumor was about a future event, it would just be the bare infinitive: ska krascha.
Could I use lär ha kraschat instead of ska ha kraschat?
Yes, but there is a slight difference in nuance. Both can translate to "is said to have", but ska is standard for objective reporting, like in journalism or police reports. lär often implies a bit more of the speaker's own assumption, closer to "probably crashed" or "is likely to have crashed".
What is the literal breakdown of the word utomjordingen?
It breaks down into utom (outside/beyond) + jord (earth) + -ing (a suffix for a person/creature) + -en (the definite suffix). So it literally means "the extra-terrestrial" or "the out-of-earther".