Breakdown of Håret i nacken är bortrakat.
vara
to be
i
in
håret
the hair
nacken
the back of the neck
bortrakad
shaved off
Questions & Answers about Håret i nacken är bortrakat.
Why is "shaved off" written as the single word bortrakat instead of rakat bort?
When a particle verb (like raka bort) is turned into a past participle used as an adjective, the particle must be attached to the front as a prefix. You would say han har rakat bort håret (he has shaved off the hair) as an active verb, but when describing the resulting state of the hair as an adjective, the particle is obligatorily prefixed to form the single word bortrakat.
Why does bortrakat end with a -t?
It is functioning as an adjective describing håret (the hair), which is an ett-word (neuter). Therefore, the past participle must take the neuter -t ending to agree with the noun. If you were describing a mustache (en mustasch), it would be bortrakad.
Why do we use the preposition i for "on the neck" instead of på?
Prepositions for body parts rarely map perfectly between English and Swedish. In Swedish, hair is said to be "in" the back of the neck (i nacken), whereas English says "on" the neck. It is best to memorize i nacken as a fixed idiomatic phrase.
Since "neck" is often translated as hals, why does this sentence use nacken?
Swedish distinguishes between the front and the back of the neck. Hals refers to the front of the neck (and the inside of the throat), while nacke specifically means the back of the neck. Since this sentence talks about hair, it naturally refers to the hairline at the back of the neck.
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