Breakdown of Min telefon gick sönder igår.
telefonen
the phone
igår
yesterday
min
my (min/mitt/mina)
gå sönder
to break, to stop working
Questions & Answers about Min telefon gick sönder igår.
Why use gick sönder instead of bröt for "broke"?
In English, we use "break" for almost everything, but Swedish is more specific. Gå sönder is used when a machine stops working or an object falls apart (like a phone, a car, or a washing machine). Bryta is used for snapping something physical in two (like a bone or a branch), and krossa is used for shattering something into pieces (like a window).
Can I use gå sönder if I want to say "I broke my phone"?
No, gå sönder is an intransitive phrasal verb, meaning it describes what happened to the subject itself without a direct object. To say "I broke my phone" (where you are doing the breaking to an object), you must use ha sönder or ta sönder, as in: Jag hade sönder min telefon.
Is sönder an adjective? Can I say "en sönder telefon"?
Sönder is technically an adverb meaning "apart" or "in pieces." While you can use it predicatively after a verb (like telefonen är sönder), you cannot put it directly in front of a noun as an adjective. You cannot say "en sönder telefon"; instead, you would use the actual adjective for broken, trasig, to say en trasig telefon.
How does the word order change if I start the sentence with Igår?
Because of the V2 rule (the verb must be the second main element in a main clause), starting with Igår forces the verb gick to come next, swapping places with the subject min telefon. The particle sönder stays put. The new sentence would be: Igår gick min telefon sönder.
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