Breakdown of Vi kan se att utsidan är tvättad.
vara
to be
vi
we
tvätta
to wash
kunna
to be able to, can
se
to see
att
that
utsidan
the outside
Questions & Answers about Vi kan se att utsidan är tvättad.
Why do we use är tvättad here instead of blir tvättad?
This is a perfect example of a stative passive. Using är (is) focuses on the resulting state: the washing is already finished, and we are looking at the clean result. If the sentence used the dynamic passive blir tvättad, it would mean the action is happening right now, as in 'the outside is being washed'.
Could we use the s-passive tvättas instead of är tvättad to mean the same thing?
Why is the participle spelled tvättad and not tvättat?
In a participial passive, the past participle functions like an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the noun it describes. Because utsidan (the outside) is a singular en-word, the participle takes the en-word ending to become tvättad. If we were talking about a t-word like fönstret (the window), it would be är tvättat.
Where would we put inte if we wanted to say 'that the outside is not washed'?
Because this is a subordinate clause introduced by att (that), sentence adverbs like inte (not) must be placed before the conjugated verb. You would write att utsidan inte är tvättad. This is a great reminder of the classic BIFF rule (Bisats Inte Före Finita verbet) for word order in subordinate clauses.
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