Breakdown of Var sammanbrottet värre efter omvägen? Om det var? Pappan var rasande!
vara
to be
det
it (neuter)
pappan
the father
efter
after
om
if, whether
värre
worse
omvägen
the detour
rasande
furious
sammanbrottet
the breakdown
Questions & Answers about Var sammanbrottet värre efter omvägen? Om det var? Pappan var rasande!
How does the Om det var? response work here, and what does it actually mean?
This is an echo response using an isolated om-clause. While literally meaning "If it was?", native speakers use it to emphatically agree with and amplify a yes/no question. It roughly translates to expressions like "You bet it was!" or "Was it ever!". It logically repeats the subject and verb from the previous question, with det var pointing back to var sammanbrottet.
Why do we say Om det var? instead of Om den var?
The pronoun det refers back to sammanbrottet (the breakdown), which is an ett-word. If the subject of the question had been an en-word like omvägen (the detour), the echo response would have been Om den var?.
Why does rasande end in -ande? Is it a verb or an adjective here?
The word rasande (furious) is originally the present participle of the verb att rasa (to rage), functioning here as an adjective. A great thing about Swedish present participles ending in -ande or -ende is that they are indeclinable, meaning they never change form to match gender or plurality.
What kind of breakdown does sammanbrott refer to in Swedish?
The compound noun ett sammanbrott (from samman meaning together and brott meaning break) usually refers to a mental or emotional breakdown, or the collapse of a system. If the family's car had broken down on the detour, you would instead use ett motorstopp or say that the car gick sönder.
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