Question 1

Why is sig used here instead of just saying Pensionären byggde en ny bänk?

Accepted Answer

Here, sig acts as a benefactive indirect object, showing who benefits from the action. Just like in English ('built himself a bench'), it emphasizes that the pensioner built the bench for his own personal use. Leaving it out is grammatically fine, but loses that personal touch.

Question 2

Could I use a preposition to say he built it for himself instead of using sig as the indirect object?

Accepted Answer

Yes! You could replace the indirect object sig with the prepositional phrase åt sig själv: Pensionären byggde en ny bänk åt sig själv. However, using åt places a much stronger, contrastive emphasis on the fact that he did it for himself and nobody else. The shorter byggde sig is more natural for a simple, relaxed statement.

Question 3

Why do we use the preposition till instead of för to translate 'for the porch'?

Accepted Answer

In Swedish, till is typically used to indicate destination or where something belongs. Because the bench is physically destined to be placed on the porch, till is the correct choice. The preposition för is generally used when doing an action on someone's behalf, which doesn't make sense for an inanimate location.

Question 4

If I start the sentence with a time phrase like Förra sommaren (Last summer), where does the reflexive pronoun sig go?

Accepted Answer

Because Swedish uses the V2 (verb-second) rule, the verb byggde must come immediately after the time phrase. The subject pensionären then follows the verb, and the short pronoun sig tucks in right after the subject: Förra sommaren byggde pensionären sig en ny bänk till verandan.

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