Word
Sprattet fick hela familjen att hoppa till.
Meaning
The prank made the whole family jump in surprise.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Sprattet fick hela familjen att hoppa till.
familjen
the family
att
to
hel
whole
få
to make (someone do something)
Questions & Answers about Sprattet fick hela familjen att hoppa till.
How does till change the meaning of hoppa here?
The particle till adds a sense of suddenness or an involuntary reaction. While hoppa simply means to jump, hoppa till means to give a sudden startle or flinch, which is exactly how people react to a prank.
Why do we need att before hoppa till? English just says 'made the family jump'.
When you want to express making someone do something in Swedish, you use the verb få (here in the past tense as fick) plus the object, followed by an infinitive verb that must include att. It functions much like the English phrase 'got the family to jump'.
Why is the word for 'whole' written as hela instead of hel?
The adjective hel is modifying a definite noun (familjen). In Swedish, when an adjective modifies a definite noun, it takes the definite -a ending. Notice that Swedish requires both the adjective and the noun to take definite forms here.
What is the root word of sprattet?
It comes from the neuter noun ett spratt, which means a prank or practical joke. It is commonly used in the phrase spela någon ett spratt (to play a prank on someone). This is slightly different from ett skämt, which is usually a spoken joke.