Breakdown of Han hinner byta skosnöret på den gamla skon innan lektionen.
han
he
innan
before
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
skon
the shoe
lektionen
the lesson
gammal
old
den
the (with en-words)
byta
to change
hinna
to have time to
skosnöret
the shoelace
Questions & Answers about Han hinner byta skosnöret på den gamla skon innan lektionen.
Why do we use på instead of an s-genitive like skons skosnöre here?
When talking about a physical part that belongs to a whole inanimate object, Swedish strongly prefers the preposition på instead of the s-genitive. You will see this often with parts of things, like the roof of a house or, in this case, the shoelace of a shoe. Note that both the part (skosnöret) and the whole (skon) take the definite form.
Why is there no att before byta, since the English translation says he has time to replace?
The verb hinna (to have time to do something) acts like a modal verb here. Just like with verbs such as kan (can) or brukar (usually do), you must drop the att and follow it directly with the bare infinitive byta.
Why does the phrase for the old shoe have three definite markers (den gamla skon)?
This is Swedish double definiteness at work. When a definite noun has an adjective attached to it, you need the freestanding definite article (den), the definite form of the adjective (gamla), and the definite suffix on the noun itself (skon).
Can I use före instead of innan before lektionen?
Yes, you could say före lektionen. Traditionally, före is used before nouns as a preposition, while innan is used before full clauses as a conjunction. However, in modern everyday Swedish, innan is widely accepted and extremely common as a preposition too.
Learn Han hinner byta skosnöret på den gamla skon innan lektionen and more in Swedish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free