Breakdown of De aggressiva rankorna tränger undan våra blommor överallt i trädgården.
i
in
trädgården
the garden
blomman
the flower
vår
our (vår/vårt/våra)
de
the (plural, before adjective)
överallt
everywhere
undan
aside, out of the way
rankan
the vine
aggressiv
aggressive
tränga
to force (one's way, push)
Questions & Answers about De aggressiva rankorna tränger undan våra blommor överallt i trädgården.
Why do we need i after överallt? Doesn't överallt already mean 'everywhere in'?
Överallt is a universal spatial adverb meaning 'everywhere', but it doesn't function as a preposition. To say 'everywhere in the garden', you still need the preposition i to bridge the adverb and the specific location (trädgården).
What does the particle undan add to the verb tränger here?
By itself, tränger means 'presses', 'pushes', or 'forces'. Adding the spatial particle undan (away or aside) creates a phrasal verb meaning 'forces away', 'displaces', or 'crowds out'.
Can I split the phrasal verb and say tränger våra blommor undan, similar to English 'forces our flowers away'?
No, Swedish is much stricter about particle placement than English. Stressed verb particles like undan must stay glued directly to the verb. You place the object after the complete phrasal verb: tränger undan våra blommor.
Since we are talking about specific flowers, why is it våra blommor instead of the definite våra blommorna?
As a quick refresher: possessive pronouns like våra (our) already make the noun phrase definite. A strict rule in Swedish is that you must use the indefinite form of the noun (blommor) immediately after a possessive word, even when the meaning is definite.
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