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Under det våldsamma upploppet använde en åttio poliser sina sköldar.

Under det våldsamma upploppet använde en åttio poliser sina sköldar.
During the violent riot, about eighty police officers used their shields.
From Lesson 410:Approximate quantities (en)·Swedish

Questions & Answers about Under det våldsamma upploppet använde en åttio poliser sina sköldar.

Why is the singular article en used before the plural number åttio?
Placing en before a number is a common way to express an approximate amount, meaning "about" or "roughly." So en åttio poliser means "about eighty police officers." Even though poliser is plural, the article en acts as a fixed approximation marker here.
Why does the verb använde come before the subject en åttio poliser?
This is due to the V2 (verb-second) rule. The sentence starts with the adverbial phrase Under det våldsamma upploppet. Because this phrase takes up the first position, the verb använde must immediately follow it in the second position, pushing the subject to the third position.
Why does the sentence use sina instead of deras for "their"?
The word sina is the reflexive possessive pronoun used for plural subjects when they are acting upon their own belongings. It shows that the police officers used their own shields. If the sentence said deras sköldar, it would mean they used shields belonging to a completely different group of people.
Why does the adjective våldsamma end in -a even though upploppet is singular?
When a noun is in the definite form (indicated by the standalone article det and the suffix -et on upploppet), the describing adjective must also take its definite form. For almost all adjectives, including våldsam, the definite form adds an -a, regardless of whether the noun is singular or plural.
Does the preposition under mean "underneath" in this context?
No, when referring to an event or a period of time like upploppet (the riot), under translates to "during." It is the standard preposition to show that an action happened while an event was ongoing.

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