Word
Sedan kollapsade den faktiskt i ett kaotiskt oväder.
Meaning
Then it actually collapsed in a chaotic storm.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Sedan kollapsade den faktiskt i ett kaotiskt oväder.
ett
a, an (neuter)
den
it (common)
i
in
sedan
then
Questions & Answers about Sedan kollapsade den faktiskt i ett kaotiskt oväder.
Why does den come right after the verb, before the adverb faktiskt?
Because this sentence starts with the adverb sedan, the verb kollapsade must come second to follow the V2 rule. When the subject is an unstressed pronoun like den, it tucks in right after the verb and before a sentence adverb like faktiskt.
How would the word order change if we replaced den with a heavy subject like den gamla bron (the old bridge)?
A heavier noun subject often drops after the sentence adverb. So instead of kollapsade den faktiskt, you would say kollapsade faktiskt den gamla bron. This is the key difference in placement between pronoun and noun subjects in inverted main clauses.
What does the prefix o- add to the word väder?
The prefix o- acts like the English prefix un- or non-, giving a word a negative or opposite meaning. Since väder means weather, oväder translates to un-weather, which is the Swedish way of saying a storm or severe bad weather.
Why does the adjective kaotiskt have a -t added to it?
Compound nouns in Swedish always take the gender of their final root word. Since väder is an ett word, oväder is also neuter. The adjective must agree with this neuter singular noun, so kaotisk gets a -t ending to become kaotiskt.