"Vad hade du ätit då?"

Translation: What had you eaten then?

[So1ovei]

In this sentence, is "då" referring to a point in time? As in, "I ate at 3 PM" "What had you eaten then?"

Or is it an interjection, as in "I had eaten already" "what had you eaten, then?"

[Lundgren8]

It could actually be both, but I’m pretty sure it refers to the former.

[jacob738094]

I find it really that in both English and Swedish this sentence is ambiguous, why should two seemingly unrelated words be the same in both languages?

[devalanteriel]

They're actually cognate. The Germanic root had a þ sound at the start, like English still does, but other languages like Swedish changed it to a d. In Scandinavia, the n at the end was eventually dropped, and the vowel changed.

You can practically see the evolution if you go through northern Europe:

• Swedish: då
• Danish: da
• German: dann
• Dutch: dan
• English: then

[person222222]

Shouldn't "what had you eaten in that case" be accepted? or am i understanding the sentence wrong?