Breakdown of Origamin skulle vara ren nu, om vi hade tvättat händerna.
vara
to be
vi
we
tvätta
to wash
nu
now
ha
to have
ren
clean
handen
the hand
om
if, whether
skulle
would
origamin
the origami
Questions & Answers about Origamin skulle vara ren nu, om vi hade tvättat händerna.
Why does this sentence mix skulle vara (would be) with hade tvättat (had washed) instead of keeping both in the same tense?
This is a mixed unreal conditional. It describes a hypothetical situation where a past action (or lack of one) affects the present. The condition om vi hade tvättat händerna is in the past perfect because the window to wash them has already closed. The result skulle vara ren nu uses skulle + present infinitive because we are talking about the state of the origami right now.
If I swapped the clauses and put the om clause first, how would the word order change?
The entire om clause would act as the first "block" in the sentence. Because of the V2 (verb-second) rule, the verb of the main clause must come immediately after the comma. It would become: Om vi hade tvättat händerna, skulle origamin vara ren nu.
Why does the sentence use händerna (the hands) rather than våra händer (our hands)?
In Swedish, you generally use the definite form for body parts and clothing when context makes it obvious who they belong to. Since the subject is vi (we), it is already clear whose hands are being washed, making the possessive word våra unnecessary.
How is the word origamin formed, and how does it affect the adjective ren?
Origami is treated as an en-word in Swedish. To make it definite ("the origami"), you simply add -n to the end, creating origamin. Because it is an en-word, the adjective describing it takes the base form ren, rather than the ett-word form rent.
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