Breakdown of Igår hade smeden mycket stål, och han gjorde det hårt.
han
he
det
it (neuter)
mycket
much / very
och
and
ha
to have
göra
to do, to make
igår
yesterday
hård
hard
stålet
the steel
smeden
the blacksmith
Questions & Answers about Igår hade smeden mycket stål, och han gjorde det hårt.
Why is the adjective hård written as hårt here?
Hårt acts as an object predicative here, meaning it describes the object of the sentence, det (which replaces the noun stål). Since stål is an ett-word, the pronoun is det and the adjective must agree with it by taking the neuter -t ending.
How does the object predicative work with the verb gjorde in this sentence?
When expressing that someone makes something a certain way, Swedish uses the verb göra followed by the object and then the adjective. In this sentence, han is the subject, gjorde is the verb, det is the object, and hårt is the object predicative describing that object.
Why is the word order hade smeden in the first clause, but han gjorde in the second?
The first clause starts with the time adverb Igår, so the verb hade must take the second position due to the V2 rule, pushing the subject smeden after it. The conjunction och connects a new main clause but does not occupy a structural position in it, so the second clause starts with the standard subject-verb order han gjorde.
Why do we use mycket instead of många before stål?
Stål is an uncountable mass noun in this context, just like the word steel in English. Swedish uses mycket for uncountable nouns and många for countable nouns.
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