Breakdown of Samlaren borde ha försökt fynda spegeln av silver.
ha
to have
försöka
to try
spegeln
the mirror
av
of, by / from (cause)
silvret
the silver
böra
should, ought to
samlaren
the collector
fynda
to find a bargain
Questions & Answers about Samlaren borde ha försökt fynda spegeln av silver.
Why is försökt in the supinum form, but fynda is in the infinitive?
When chaining verbs in Swedish, each verb dictates the form of the one following it. Here, borde (should) takes the infinitive ha (have). The auxiliary ha always requires the next verb to be in the supinum form, giving us försökt (tried). Finally, försöka is a verb that takes another infinitive, leaving fynda (to find a bargain) in its base form.
I know the word hitta means "to find". What is the difference between hitta and fynda?
While hitta just means to physically locate something, fynda specifically means to find a bargain, score a great deal, or make a lucky discovery (like at a flea market). It comes from the noun ett fynd (a bargain or a find).
Could we combine silver and spegeln into a single compound word here?
Yes, you can! Silverspegeln (the silver mirror) is perfectly correct and very common. Phrasing it as spegeln av silver (the mirror of silver) means the exact same thing but places a slightly heavier, almost poetic emphasis on the material itself.
In spoken Swedish, do people actually pronounce borde ha as two distinct words?
Often, they don't. In relaxed, everyday speech, the word ha is usually shortened. Native speakers frequently drop the "h" and blend the words together, making borde ha sound like "borde a".
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