Breakdown of Grytan innehåller både kött och kål.
och
and
köttet
the meat
både
both
innehålla
to contain
kålen
the cabbage
grytan
the stew
Questions & Answers about Grytan innehåller både kött och kål.
How would I say 'a kind of meat' or 'a sort of cabbage' using this lesson's grammar?
You can use either en sorts or ett slags. Both function as fixed phrases meaning 'a kind of', so you can say en sorts kött or ett slags kål regardless of the noun's actual gender. The determiners en and ett agree with the words sort (an en-word) and slag (an ett-word), not the food itself.
Is innehåller a separable verb? Can I say grytan håller både kött och kål inne?
No, innehålla (to contain) is a fixed compound verb. If you split it into the particle verb hålla inne, it changes the meaning entirely to 'holding in' or 'withholding', such as holding your breath or withholding feelings.
What happens to the word order if I start the sentence with Både kött och kål?
Because of the V2 rule (verb in the second position), the verb must immediately follow that phrase. The sentence becomes: Både kött och kål innehåller grytan. The entire phrase både kött och kål counts as a single unit occupying the first position. Note that since Swedish relies heavily on word order to show the subject, this inversion can technically look like the meat and cabbage contain the stew, but context makes the meaning obvious here.
Why don't we use an article like ett kött or en kål here?
In this context, both meat and cabbage are uncountable mass nouns. Just like in English, when you refer to a general substance rather than a specific item or a whole head of cabbage, you drop the article.
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