Breakdown of Filmen skildrar inte kriget, men det gör romanen.
det
it (neuter)
inte
not
göra
to do, to make
filmen
the film
Questions & Answers about Filmen skildrar inte kriget, men det gör romanen.
Why do we need the word det in the second clause?
In English, you can drop the repeated action and simply say '...but the novel does.' Swedish requires a placeholder to represent the omitted action from the first clause, which is skildrar kriget (depicts the war). The word det acts as this placeholder. Think of it as saying '...but the novel does so' or '...but the novel does that.'
Why is the word order det gör romanen instead of romanen gör det?
You can absolutely say men romanen gör det, but putting det first connects the second clause much more smoothly to the first one. Because Swedish is a strictly verb-second (V2) language, starting the clause with det forces the verb gör into the second position, which pushes the subject romanen to the end.
Could I just repeat the verb and say men romanen skildrar det?
Yes, that is grammatically correct and means 'but the novel depicts it.' However, using det gör [subject] is much more natural and elegant when you want to contrast two subjects performing (or not performing) the exact same action.
What kind of situations is the verb skildrar used in?
skildrar means 'depicts', 'portrays', or 'describes.' You will see it constantly at the B2 level when discussing literature, art, movies, or historical accounts, making it a highly useful verb for writing reviews and essays.