Breakdown of Livet till sjöss verkar farligt.
livet
the life
farlig
dangerous
verka
to seem, to appear
till sjöss
to sea / at sea
Questions & Answers about Livet till sjöss verkar farligt.
Why does sjö have an -ss ending in till sjöss?
This is a fossilized genitive form. In older Swedish, the preposition till required the noun following it to take a genitive -s ending. This grammar rule is dead today, but it survives in fixed phrases like till sjöss (at sea) or till skogs (into the woods). The double -ss is used because sjö ends in a vowel.
Doesn't till usually mean 'to'? Why does it translate to 'at' here?
While till normally shows direction, in these old fossilized expressions it often describes a location or a state. Till sjöss can mean both 'to sea' (as a destination) and 'at sea' (as a location) depending on the context. Because this sentence describes living in that environment, 'at sea' is the correct meaning.
Why is the adjective farligt instead of farlig?
The adjective must agree with the noun it describes. The subject of the sentence is livet (life), which is an ett word. Therefore, the adjective farlig gets the neuter -t ending to become farligt.
English says 'Life at sea' without 'the', so why does Swedish use the definite form Livet?