Breakdown of Bilen var blank efter att ha blivit polerad.
vara
to be
bilen
the car
ha
to have
att
to
bli
to become
efter
after
polera
to polish (buff to a shine, e.g., cars, floors)
blank
shiny
Questions & Answers about Bilen var blank efter att ha blivit polerad.
How does blivit polerad demonstrate a dynamic passive instead of a stative one?
The verb bli (here as blivit) focuses on the action or the change of state - the actual process of someone polishing the car. If the sentence used varit polerad (stative), it would just describe the car as resting in a polished condition, losing the focus on the event that caused it to become shiny.
Is blank a false friend in this sentence?
Yes! While it looks exactly like the English word, blank in Swedish usually means shiny, glossy, or polished. If you want to say blank as in an empty page, you would instead use tom (empty) or oskriven (unwritten).
Why do we need the word att in the phrase efter att ha blivit?
In Swedish, prepositions like efter cannot usually be followed directly by a verb. You must use the infinitive marker att to connect the preposition to the infinitive verb ha. This creates a phrase that translates to the English '-ing' form (after having been).
Why does the participle end in -d (polerad) rather than -t or -de?
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