Breakdown of Skojar du eller menar du allvar?
du
you (singular)
eller
or
mena
to mean (intend to say)
skoja
to joke, to kid
Questions & Answers about Skojar du eller menar du allvar?
Why is it menar du allvar instead of using the adjective for "serious" (allvarlig)?
In Swedish, the standard idiom for "to be serious" (meaning you aren't joking) is the verb att mena (to mean) followed by the noun allvar (seriousness). Literally, it translates to "do you mean seriousness". While you could grammatically say Är du allvarlig?, that sounds more like you are asking if the person has a generally somber or severe personality.
This lesson is about word order with direct quotes. How would I add "she asked" to the end of this sentence?
The entire spoken quote counts as the first block of information in the main sentence. To keep the verb in the second position (the V2 rule), the reporting verb must come immediately after the quote, before its subject. So you would write: "Skojar du eller menar du allvar?" frågade hon. (literally: "...asked she.")
What if I put "She asked:" at the beginning instead?
If the reporting clause comes first, it follows normal Subject-Verb order because the quote hasn't taken up the first position yet. It would be: Hon frågade: "Skojar du eller menar du allvar?"
Is it possible to drop the second du and just say Skojar du eller menar allvar?
No, you should keep both. When you connect two independent questions with a conjunction like eller, and both have inverted word order (verb-subject), you need to repeat the subject in Swedish to sound grammatically complete.
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