Breakdown of Vi bad honom förklara sitt utbrott.
vi
we
honom
him
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
förklara
to explain
be
to ask for, to request
utbrottet
the outburst
Questions & Answers about Vi bad honom förklara sitt utbrott.
How is the noun utbrott formed, according to this lesson's rules?
It comes from the particle verb bryta ut (to break out). To form the noun, the particle ut moves to the front as a prefix, and the verb stem bryta shifts to the noun form -brott. This creates the neuter noun ett utbrott (an outburst).
Why is it sitt utbrott and not hans utbrott, considering the main subject of the sentence is Vi?
Swedish uses the reflexive possessive pronouns (sin/sitt/sina) to refer back to the subject. Even though Vi is the main subject of the sentence, honom is the "logical subject" of the infinitive verb förklara (he is the one doing the explaining). Because he is explaining his own outburst, we use sitt. If we used hans, it would mean he was explaining some other man's outburst!
Why is there no att before the infinitive förklara?
The verb be (to ask/request) follows a specific pattern: be någon göra något (to ask someone to do something). Like a few other Swedish verbs (such as låta or hjälpa), it takes an object followed directly by a bare infinitive, dropping the infinitive marker att.
The word bad means "asked" here. Could we have used frågade instead?
No, because they represent different types of asking. be (past tense: bad) means to ask someone to do something, like a request or a favor. fråga (past tense: frågade) means to ask a question to get information. Since we are requesting him to perform an action (explaining), we must use bad.
Learn Vi bad honom förklara sitt utbrott and more in Swedish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free