Breakdown of Ett tusental varor blev tyvärr stulna.
ett
a, an (neuter)
bli
to become
tyvärr
unfortunately
stulen
stolen
varan
the good
tusentalet
the group of around a thousand
Questions & Answers about Ett tusental varor blev tyvärr stulna.
Why is it ett tusental and not just tusen?
Adding the suffix -tal to a number turns it into a noun meaning an amount of roughly that number. So tusen means exactly one thousand, while ett tusental means 'roughly a thousand' or 'a thousand or so'.
Why does the past participle stulna take the plural ending -a if the subject starts with the singular word ett?
Even though ett tusental is grammatically a singular neuter noun, the whole phrase ett tusental varor describes multiple items. In Swedish, past participles following these collective quantities agree with the actual plural meaning (the items themselves), so we use the plural form stulna rather than the singular neuter stulet.
Could I say tusentals varor instead of ett tusental varor here?
You could, but it changes the meaning. Ett tusental varor means 'around a thousand items', whereas tusentals varor translates to 'thousands of items' (a much larger, indefinite amount). Notice that tusentals does not use the article ett.
Why is the adverb tyvärr placed between blev and stulna?
In a standard main clause, sentence adverbs like tyvärr (unfortunately) are placed immediately after the first conjugated verb. Since blev is the conjugated verb holding the second position (following the V2 rule), tyvärr goes right after it, splitting blev from the participle stulna.
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