"Tomorrow we meet the enemy."

Translation: I morgon möter vi fienden.

[Mak0rz]

What's with the word order? Why "möter vi" and not "vi möter"?

[Zmrzlina]

Swedish has the so-called V2 rule, that specifies that a verb will most often be at the second place in a construction. Thus when the sentence starts with "i morgon", the verb has to go second.

[freeboprich]

So you can't do the other way around and say "vi möter fienden imorgon"?

[NogoBogo]

I think you can. In that case it would be "vi möter", the regular order.

[paul.elephant]

Why doesn't "träffar" work here?

[Lundgren8]

”Möta” in this context is more ”face in a battle”. ”Träffa” would work but it implies they’re just gonna see each other.

[GeorgeFerguson93]

That could totally work....the Vikings land on the English coast, see the king's soldiers and are like "yo homies, what's happening?"

[w-torkington]

"There goes the neighbourhood"

[LenaStorli]

There is also a pun in the phrase "vi träffar fienden". It means both "we mee the enemy (shaking hands) " and "we hit the enemy (as a firearm target).

Gå till skjutbanan och träffa dina kompisar!

[km1]

If the vikings are planning a secret surpise attack, could we say "träffar" ?

[Zmrzlina]

No, that would still imply that they're seeing each other for reasons of socialising.

[MariekeGro]

I used möter, but wrote it wrong, and it corrected me to träffar, so I guess it works now

[BarbaraMorris]

Yes. "i morgon träffar vi fienden" worked for me just now. But I'm glad I came in here to find out why it suggested "möter" instead.

[pekarekr]

Wiktionary

möta (verb)

• converge and touch
  meet; → möta;

• see through arrangement
  meet; → möta; träffa;

• to come together; to meet
  join; → möta;

• meet (someone) or find (something) unexpectedly
  encounter; → möta; anträffa; stöta på;

[Earthwiz]

Just curious. In Swedish 'fiend' is enemy, in English fiend is someone evil, the devil. Coincidence or do they have the same roots?

[Drraby]

guys its wrong if i say: i morgon VI MÖTER fienden?

[BarbaraMorris]

Yes, that's wrong. If a sentence starts with a time expression like "I morgon", the next part has to start with the verb. This is called the "V2 Rule", meaning that the verb has to be second in a Swedish sentence. Usually, you have 1:Subject, 2:Verb. But here, you have 1:Time-expression, 2:Verb, 3:Subject.

Also see Zmrzlina's response to a similar question at the beginning of this thread.

[AndreasWil20]

Tomorrow we will meet the enemy. Now we meet the enemy. And yesterday we met the enemy