Log inSign up

Mest extravagant var klänningen på catwalken.

Mest extravagant var klänningen på catwalken.
Most extravagant was the dress on the catwalk.
From Lesson 414:Emphatic adjective fronting·Swedish

Questions & Answers about Mest extravagant var klänningen på catwalken.

Why does the sentence start with Mest extravagant instead of the subject klänningen?
This is called stylistic fronting. By moving the describing adjective to the very beginning of the sentence, we give it narrative emphasis. It highlights the extreme extravagance right away, which is a common stylistic tool in Swedish journalism and literature to make descriptions more vivid.
Does putting the adjective first affect the word order of the subject and verb?
Yes, it triggers the V2 rule. Since the adjective phrase takes up the first position in the sentence, the verb var must take the second position. This pushes the subject klänningen to the third position. In standard, unemphasized word order, this would simply be Klänningen på catwalken var mest extravagant.
Why do we use Mest extravagant instead of adding a Swedish superlative ending like -ast?
While many Swedish adjectives use -are and -ast for comparisons, longer words and foreign loanwords like extravagant typically use mer (more) and mest (most). This simply makes the word easier to pronounce and avoids clunky combinations.
How does the loanword catwalk get its definite form catwalken?
When Swedish borrows nouns from English, it usually assigns them a gender (often en-words) and applies standard Swedish endings. Since catwalk is treated as an en-word, it takes the standard -en suffix to mean the catwalk.

Learn Mest extravagant var klänningen på catwalken and more in Swedish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Swedish →