"Vi begår alla brott ibland."
Translation:We all commit crimes sometimes.
19 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Yes, it could mean 'We commit all crimes sometimes', and that is an accepted answer, but it's not a very good one – just like in English, we'd be much more likely to express this in a clearer way if we really wanted to say it. Like alla möjliga brott 'all kinds of crime' or something like that.
The reason we don't say Vi alla begår brott is that we want the verb to be in second place in all sentences that are not questions or subclauses. Read more about word order here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8970470
You could claim that it would still be V2 if you view Vi alla as one unit. I think native speakers are divided on this: I wouldn't use Vi alla that way, it sounds old-fashioned to me, but some might.
I think you could find a way around it with word order,something like Vi begår ibland alla brott.I don't know,however,i'm not Swedish.That would probably mean that we commit all crimes sometimes,although i don't think anyone would say a sentence like that anyway.
But you can't translate literally word for word,you should always use the given order.You can find some info on word order in Swedish and it'll be much clearer once you've read it.It is my understanding that the action always comes before, i.e. Jag äter aldrig fläsk (I never eat pork) ,and not Jag aldrig äter fläsk
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The given translation "We all commit crime at times" sounds wrong to me, because I feel "crime" in this context functions as a countable noun. I'd expect "We all commit crimeS at times" (plural) or "We all commit A crime at times". What do you think? I realize it can work as a mass noun elsewhere, e.g.: "Crime has decreased since then."
I just saw this and thought of this sentence. It is a bit related, even though they never say this particular sentence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUwdv1sN30
N.B. This requires a rather high level in Swedish listening comprehension
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Thanks for that link, Anrui.
To everyone who can't view the video because it is blocked, here's another link that works: https://www.facebook.com/Humorsajten/videos/906185762789427/
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My answer: we all commit 'a' crime at times was not approved. To me there is not much difference.
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I agree it's not the best way to put it, although I must say you can hear a native speaker word it like this occassionally, so it's not the kind of mistake that would definitely "out" you as a non-native. :-)
I'm not even 100% sure if it's grammatically incorrect either to be honest, since I could imagine someone saying "Vi begår alla sällan brott" which would sound as awkward as "We all seldom commit crime", but still work. You could also say "Vi begår sällan brott allihop".
"Vi begår alla brott sällan" wouldn't work at all though. (Similarly to how "We all commit crimes seldom" doesn't work).