Breakdown of Bara arbetsgruppen är med och förbereder skördefesten.
vara
to be
och
and
bara
only, just
med
with
förbereda
to prepare
arbetsgruppen
the working group
skördefesten
the harvest festival
Questions & Answers about Bara arbetsgruppen är med och förbereder skördefesten.
Why are both är and förbereder in the present tense?
This sentence uses participative pseudo-coordination, which connects vara med (to participate or be involved) to an action. In Swedish, these two verbs must match in tense. Because the working group is participating right now, är is in the present tense, which means förbereder must also be in the present tense.
Could I use an infinitive instead and say är med att förbereda, similar to the English 'taking part in preparing'?
No, Swedish doesn't use the infinitive marker att in this specific structure. The phrase vara med och acts like a fixed frame where the word och connects two finite verbs (verbs that show tense). You must use och followed by a matching conjugated verb.
Bara is an adverb, so why doesn't the verb come immediately after it to make Bara är arbetsgruppen?
The V2 (verb-second) rule dictates that the verb must be the second grammatical building block in a main clause. Here, Bara directly modifies arbetsgruppen, so the entire phrase Bara arbetsgruppen (Only the working group) acts as a single subject block in the first position. That correctly leaves the verb är in the second position.
How is the compound word skördefesten built?
It is made of the nouns skörd (harvest) and fest (party or festival), joined by the linking vowel -e-. The -en at the end is the definite suffix, giving us 'the harvest festival'.
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