Breakdown of Facket hotar med att strejka om arbetsgivarna inte accepterar villkoren.
inte
not
att
to
med
with
om
if, whether
acceptera
to accept
villkoret
the condition / the term (requirement)
hota
to threaten
facket
the union
arbetsgivaren
the employer
strejka
to strike
Questions & Answers about Facket hotar med att strejka om arbetsgivarna inte accepterar villkoren.
Why is it arbetsgivarna and not arbetsgivarena?
The noun en arbetsgivare belongs to Group 5 (nouns ending in -are). When you make these words definite plural (the employers), you add the suffix -na. However, to make it flow better, Swedish drops the final -e of the root word. This dropping of a vowel is called orthographic syncopation, giving us arbetsgivarna instead of the clunky arbetsgivarena.
Why is med used in hotar med att strejka? In English, it is just 'threatens to strike'.
The Swedish verb att hota (to threaten) pairs with the preposition med (with) when you state what the threat involves. You must use med even when the threat is an action expressed by an att-infinitive phrase. Think of it literally as 'threatens with to strike'.
Why does inte come before the verb accepterar?
The phrase om arbetsgivarna inte accepterar villkoren is a subordinate clause, introduced by the conjunction om (if). In Swedish, sentence adverbs like inte are placed before the conjugated verb in subordinate clauses. You might remember this as the BIFF rule (Bisats: Inte Före Finita verbet).
Doesn't facket usually mean 'the compartment' or 'the pigeonhole'?
Yes, ett fack literally means a compartment or a specific field of study. However, in everyday Swedish society and news, facket is the universally used shorthand for fackföreningen (the trade union).
Arbetsgivare and villkor are both Group 5 nouns, so why do their definite plural endings look different (-na vs -en)?
Group 5 consists of nouns that do not change in the indefinite plural (one arbetsgivare, two arbetsgivare; one villkor, two villkor). However, they take different endings in the definite plural depending on their gender and ending. En-words ending in -are take -na (and drop the -e, becoming arbetsgivarna), while ett-words ending in a consonant take -en (becoming villkoren).
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