Om jag hade lärt mig vika, skulle tranan flyga nu.
If I had learned to fold, the crane would fly now.
Breakdown of Om jag hade lärt mig vika, skulle tranan flyga nu.
jag
I
nu
now
ha
to have
lära sig
to learn
flyga
to fly
om
if, whether
skulle
would
vika
to fold
tranan
the crane
Questions & Answers about Om jag hade lärt mig vika, skulle tranan flyga nu.
Why do we use the past perfect (hade lärt) in the first half but a present infinitive (skulle flyga) in the second half?
This is a mixed unreal conditional. The first half is about a hypothetical condition in the past (you didn't learn how to fold). The second half shows the hypothetical result happening right now in the present (nu). Because the result is happening now, we use skulle plus the present infinitive (flyga) instead of a past conditional.
Why does the verb skulle come immediately after the comma?
This is the Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule in action. The entire "if" clause (Om jag hade lärt mig vika) acts as the first block of information in the sentence. Therefore, the main verb of the result clause (skulle) must come next to take the second position, before the subject (tranan).
Why is the reflexive pronoun mig included in lärt mig vika?
The Swedish verb for "to learn" is the reflexive lära sig. If you left out mig and just wrote hade lärt vika, it would mean "had taught to fold" because lära without the reflexive pronoun means "to teach".
Is it okay that there is no att (to) before the verb vika?
Yes! While it is grammatically correct to say hade lärt mig att vika, it is very common in spoken and written Swedish to drop the infinitive marker att after lära sig when another verb follows it directly.
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