Breakdown of Var och en förtjänar en lugn ålderdom.
en
a, an (common)
lugn
calm
var och en
each one
förtjäna
to deserve
ålderdomen
the old age
Questions & Answers about Var och en förtjänar en lugn ålderdom.
The translation uses "everyone" for var och en. Why not just use alla?
While alla refers to "everyone" as a collective group (plural), var och en literally means "each and every one" and focuses on individuals. Grammatically, var och en is strictly singular. If you used possessive pronouns later in a sentence, this difference matters: alla har sina böcker (everyone has their books) vs. var och en har sin bok (each one has their book).
How does the suffix -dom work in the word ålderdom?
The suffix -dom creates nouns describing a state, condition, or period of life—very much like "-hood" or "-dom" in English. Since ålder means "age", ålderdom means "old age". Almost all -dom words are en-words, which is why the sentence says en lugn ålderdom. Other common examples you should know at this level are sjukdom (illness), ungdom (youth), and barndom (childhood).
If I wanted to change the sentence to "Everyone deserves to buy themselves a peaceful old age", how would I use a benefactive reflexive pronoun here?
Because var och en is grammatically third-person singular, you must use the singular reflexive pronoun sig. To say "buy themselves" (using the reflexive as an indirect object), you would say att köpa sig. The full sentence becomes: Var och en förtjänar att köpa sig en lugn ålderdom. Even though English often uses the plural "themselves" for "everyone", Swedish strictly follows the singular grammar of var och en.
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