"Frågan är svår att svara på."
Translation:The question is difficult to answer.
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With this syntax, at first there doesn't seem to be an object though. But it could also be said, "it is difficult to answer the question." Then the question is clearly the object of "to answer." Anyway, I found this structure really difficult to understand; well, unusual at least.
It's been a long time since you wrote this, but if anyone else struggles with this, I just thought of a comparison: think of how the English verb look would work.
E.g. "These photos are hard to look at". This verb works the same way.
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Better yet for the English speaker is to think of "svara" as more precisely the equivalent of "to respond" rather than "to answer." No native English speaker would make the mistake "The question is difficult to respond.". We would say instead "The question is difficult to respond to." In that way, the English speaker will always remember to add the "på" when required with this verb.
However...we also respond "to" x, including the names and object pronouns of people. It seems, though that one does not "svarar på" object pronouns or names of people: "Han svarar henne". When does "svara" need the preposition?
Here's add good a place as any, so:
I had to translate 'That is hard to believe' and it marked me wrong for answering with Det är svårt att tro på; the right answer omitted the på. So why aren't we omitting the på after the att here?
I think this works pretty much the same in Swedish and English: That is hard to believe = Det är svårt att tro but Det är svårt att tro på = That is hard to believe in.
why is "hard" not accepted as "difficult".??? it means the same. Hard to learn ; difficult to learn ,
The construction "is[/am/are] to be" is used not to describe but to stipulate something that has not yet come about, e.g. "The house is to be painted blue." It can also be used to give a suggestion, as a softer alternative to using the imperative mood, as in "This movie is not to be missed".
So, firstly this is not the meaning that we want for this translation, and furthermore, "The question is hard to be answered" is ungramatical. It is possible to say "The question is to be answered", and if we want to stipulate further details, we would need to use adverbs or adverbial phrases, such as "The question is to be answered truthfully". However, once you use an adjective in "The question is hard...", you are already in an entirely different construction that doesn't go along with "...to be answered".
In English, "question" is used as the direction object of the verb "answer", without any preposition. "To answer to" has a different usage, for example: "You would have to answer to your big brother, if you don't do your chores" (because he told you to do it).
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Shouldn't the Swedish course assess our understanding of Swedish, instead of our English grammar? This could be accepted with a reminder, similar to when typos happen.
That's actually quite a large problem, and one that is difficult to get right. Plus, a lot of our users take the course to improve their English as well, so it's already very difficult to draw the line in the case of e.g. idiomatics.
That's understandable, but just to be clear, a and å are different vowels in Sweden so they don't actually sound alike.
I wrote : the question is hard to answer. which means the same thing!