Breakdown of Igår firade faktiskt hela grannskapet kvartersfesten.
igår
yesterday
hel
whole
faktiskt
actually (as a matter of fact, in fact)
fira
to celebrate
grannskapet
the neighborhood (vicinity, surroundings)
kvartersfesten
the block party
Questions & Answers about Igår firade faktiskt hela grannskapet kvartersfesten.
Why does faktiskt come before the subject hela grannskapet? I thought the subject had to come right after the verb when starting with a time word like igår.
This is exactly what the current lesson is about! Usually, a pronoun subject comes right after the verb in an inverted sentence (like Igår firade de faktiskt...). However, when the subject is a heavier noun phrase like hela grannskapet (the whole neighborhood), Swedish prefers to push it after the sentence adverb (faktiskt).
Is it grammatically wrong to say Igår firade hela grannskapet faktiskt kvartersfesten?
It is not strictly wrong, but it sounds much less natural. Swedish prefers moving long, heavy subjects after the sentence adverb to keep the verb (firade) and the adverb (faktiskt) closer together, which improves the rhythm and flow of the sentence.
How is the word grannskapet built?
It comes from granne (neighbor) and the suffix -skap, which works just like the English suffixes -hood or -ship (as in vänskap for friendship). Together they form the ett-word grannskap (neighborhood). The ending -et makes it definite: grannskapet (the neighborhood).
Why is there an -s- in the middle of kvartersfesten?
That is a linking -s-, which is very common when building Swedish compound words. It connects kvarter (block or quarter) with festen (the party) to create a smooth pronunciation for the compound word kvartersfesten (the block party).
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