"There are no police high up on the mountain."

Translation: Högt uppe på berget finns det ingen polis.

[Coreopsis2943]

Can this be constructed starting with the "det finns" as well as this way?

[Lundgren8]

Yes, if ingen polis follows immediately.

[MarvelMani1]

But WHY is the sentence with the changed word order the default? Is there some nuance with one structure over the other?

[Alf-Sawman]

Now, I would start with "Det finns ingen polis..." to translate the English sentence here. (The Swedish/English word order matches.)

(I'm a native Norwegian, but there's no real difference here.)

[devalanteriel]

It's because the Swedish phrase is a piece of lyrics. From a song children sing about farting, no less. I'm not very fond of having it in the course; it screws up the learning process for no good reason.

[Sabine444222]

What is wrong with
Det finns ingen polis högt uppe på fjället
?

[_Clint_]

I wrote the same, except used berget instead of fjället. Marked me wrong.

[historicbruno]

Why "högt" instead of "hög"? Is it because it's functioning as an adverb modifying "uppe"?

[devalanteriel]

Yes. :)

[Cyraith]

The English on this sentence needs to be reversed, that "up high on the mountain there are no police"

[bigswedeej]

Why isnt it inga polis? The sentence implies plural. There ARE no..

[Emerce0]

Good question. Is police is not plural? If it is, what does poliser mean insted?

[devalanteriel]

For inga, you have to use an explicit plural form - "no police officers", so to speak. So inga poliser is perfectly fine. :)

[TiagoJCSousa]

Why can't it be "det är ingen polis högt uppe på berget"?

[stefanosometimes]

Why uppe instead of upp? Thanks...

[devalanteriel]

uppe is a place; upp is a direction.

[stefanosometimes]

Thank you!

[nuukamuiskunen]

Fjället instead of berget is wrong? Is that intentional?
I know fjäll isn't as high as a mountain but..

[devalanteriel]

No, that's fine. Seems this sentence was never revised, so it was lacking some translation. I've added a bunch now. :)

Note that fjäll is basically just a term for a Scandinavian mountain. It doesn't say anything about maximum height.

[nuukamuiskunen]

Thank you! :)

Yeah, I think I have just inferred the height from being familiar with Finnish (Sámi origin) word tunturi and knowing they are considered rounded and flatter than vuori (mountain) while also being in Scandinavia. Anyway, it is a bit of a fuzzy word it seems!

Just learned there's also a British word fell of old norse origin with similar characteristics, but I guess it makes no sense and might just add to the confusion to translate Swedish fjäll to fell if that word is not in common usage. (Also I think duo tends to use American English)

[devalanteriel]

fjäll actually has a fairly simple definition - it's a mountain in Scandinavia reaching higher than trees can grow. :) So Finnish isn't of much help in this case, since it's not in Scandinavia.

(You're right about the US English thing. We try to accept all major English variations, but default to US English.)