Breakdown of Jag väljer att koppla ner, undvika distraktionen och tillbringa fritiden skärmfri.
jag
I
och
and
att
to
välja
to choose
undvika
to avoid
fritiden
the free time
koppla ner
to disconnect
tillbringa
to spend
distraktionen
the distraction
skärmfri
screen-free
Questions & Answers about Jag väljer att koppla ner, undvika distraktionen och tillbringa fritiden skärmfri.
Why is there only one att before a list of three verbs (koppla ner, undvika, tillbringa)?
When you have a series of infinitive verbs connected by commas and och, you only need to use the infinitive marker att before the first verb. It is safely dropped for the rest of the verbs in the coordinated series: att koppla ner, [att] undvika, och [att] tillbringa.
Could I use spendera instead of tillbringa here to mean "spend my free time"?
You will hear native speakers use spendera for time nowadays due to English influence. However, in careful Swedish, tillbringa is used for spending time, while spendera is reserved for spending money. It is a great B2 habit to use tillbringa when talking about time, as in tillbringa fritiden.
Why is it skärmfri and not the adverb form skärmfritt, since it describes how I spend my time?
Even though it seems to describe the action, skärmfri is actually acting as a predicative adjective describing the subject, Jag. Because a person (Jag) is treated as a common gender en-word, the adjective takes the basic form skärmfri. If the subject were plural, like Vi, it would be skärmfria.
Why does the sentence use the singular definite form distraktionen rather than the plural distraktioner?
While you could say undvika distraktioner (avoid distractions) in a broad sense, this sentence uses the definite singular distraktionen (the distraction) to refer specifically to the distinct distraction of what was just mentioned: being connected online.
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