Breakdown of Jag har mediterat varje dag sedan jag kom till klostret.
jag
I
ha
to have
komma
to come
till
to (direction, destination)
dagen
the day
varje
every, each
klostret
the monastery
sedan
since (from a point in time)
meditera
to meditate
Questions & Answers about Jag har mediterat varje dag sedan jag kom till klostret.
Why do we use the present perfect (har mediterat) in the main clause, but the past tense (kom) after sedan?
Sedan (since) connects a situation that is still ongoing to the exact moment it started. The main clause uses the present perfect (har mediterat) because the daily meditation continues today. The sedan clause uses the past tense (kom) because arriving at the monastery was a single, finished event in the past.
Can I use the shorter word sen instead of sedan in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely. Sen is the most common way to say this in spoken Swedish and informal writing. You will almost always hear native speakers say sen jag kom rather than the full sedan jag kom.
Why is the definite form of ett kloster (a monastery) spelled as klostret rather than klosteret?
For ett words that end in -er, -el, or -en, Swedish usually drops the final -e in the root before adding the definite suffix -et. This makes it easier to pronounce, giving us klostret instead of the clunky klosteret.
What happens to the word order if I want to put the sedan clause at the beginning of the sentence?
The V2 rule kicks in. The entire sedan clause counts as position one, so the verb of the main clause must come immediately after it. The sentence becomes: Sedan jag kom till klostret har jag mediterat varje dag.
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