Breakdown of Besättningen sätter sig till bords.
sätta sig
to sit down
besättningen
the crew
till bords
to the table / at the table
Questions & Answers about Besättningen sätter sig till bords.
Why is there an 's' at the end of bords?
This is a fossilized genitive form. In older Swedish, the preposition till forced the following noun into the genitive case, adding an -s. Today, that grammar rule is no longer active, but it survives in fixed expressions like till bords.
Can I just say sätter sig vid bordet instead?
Yes, but the nuance changes. Sätta sig vid bordet describes the literal physical action of taking a seat at a table. Sätta sig till bords is a specific idiom that means sitting down for a formal meal.
Why use the reflexive sätter sig here rather than just sitter?
Sätta sig describes the dynamic action of taking a seat, whereas sitta describes the static state of already being seated. If they were already seated and eating, the sentence would be Besättningen sitter till bords.
Besättningen implies a group of people. Why is the verb singular?
Collective nouns like en besättning (a crew), en familj (a family), or en personal (a staff) are strictly treated as grammatically singular in Swedish. They always take singular verbs, even though they represent multiple individuals.
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