15 Comments
Can someone explain the structure of "det gör han"? I'm having trouble making it make sense to me.
It’s literally ”yes, it/that does he”. When responding and referring back to a statement or so, we often put the ”it” in the beginning which is common overall in Swedish. It’s the same as ”det vet jag inte” (I don’t know that) or ”det vill jag inte” (I don’t want that).
So it sounds a little bit like in English when someone says "Yes, that he does", which means exactly the same thing as "yes, he does".
Sure - just like in English. You say "yes, that x does" with a "that" regardless of whether you're talking about he, she, or the neighbour's chimney sweep.
433
It's great to read the comments to understand this - I find it a difficult bit of knowledge to get clear. I think I'll get it wrong quite a lot before I get it right!
- 1227
I see that in mostly phrases in Swedish the phrases have this order:
Something + verb (almost always in second place of the phrase) + personal pronoun.
I am wrong? Theres a particular reason for this?
- 940
It's called the V2 rule. All main clauses that are not questions have the verb in second place.
"Yes, he makes it" is incorrect? "Makes" is one of the suggested words for gör, and it makes sense.
- 940
I think Lundgren8:s first comment on this page explains the function of this sentence very well.
- 11
Translating literally is not advisable. You transfer ideas from one language to another. Words are the parts these ideas are made of, and they are assembled in a different way in each language.
