Breakdown of Skogen sägs vara hemsökt, men är det verkligen bara en vandringssägen?
vara
to be
det
it (neuter)
en
a, an (common)
skogen
the forest
men
but
bara
only, just
verkligen
really
sägas
to be said
vandringssägnen
the urban legend
hemsökt
haunted
Questions & Answers about Skogen sägs vara hemsökt, men är det verkligen bara en vandringssägen?
Why is there no att before vara in sägs vara?
This is a special structure for passive verbs of reporting, like sägs (is said), anses (is considered), or påstås (is claimed). They take a bare infinitive. Even though English says 'is said to be', Swedish drops the infinitive marker att and connects directly to vara.
Does the word hemsökt change depending on the subject?
Yes. Hemsökt is a past participle acting as an adjective. Because the subject skogen is a singular en-word, hemsökt stays in its basic form. If the subject were plural, like husen (the houses), you would need the plural form hemsökta: Husen sägs vara hemsökta.
Why does the second clause use det instead of den to refer back to skogen?
The pronoun det does not refer to the noun skogen itself. Instead, it refers to the entire concept or claim mentioned in the first half of the sentence (the idea that the forest is haunted). When referring back to a whole situation or abstract statement, Swedish uses the neuter pronoun det.
How is the word vandringssägen formed?
It is a compound of vandring (wandering or journey) and sägen (tale or legend). So an urban legend in Swedish is literally a wandering tale, which perfectly describes a story that travels from person to person!
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