Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t. I did it twice in the past, because my dearly beloved demanded turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. Turkeys are easy to come by here, our local Ica MAXI<\/strong> carries them. And during November you can even spot frozen cranberries, so if you\u2019re really dedicated you can make your own sauce. And recently I\u2019ve even seen imported cornbread mix.<\/p>\n But, but, but\u2026 We were going to talk about grammar today, not about cornbread mixes. However, in order to talk about today\u2019s topic, we need an example, and since it IS Thanksgiving, let\u2019s pick a suitably festive sentence to play with. How about:<\/p>\n And now let\u2019s talk about subjects, objects and word order in Swedish. But first things first. Do you remember how it works in English? Sure you do! At least theoretically, because what we write and what we say may be two very different things. Anyway, the same word order applies in Swedish, too. But if that\u2019s the case then what\u2019s up with our sample sentence? It sure does not start with a subject.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t. If it started with a subject, it would look like this:<\/p>\n So, here \u201cThanksgiving\u201d is our subject, and \u201c\u00e4r<\/strong>\u201d is our verb. And a whole bunch of little things following the verb completes the sentence. Then why doesn\u2019t our original sentence start with a subject? Well, because Swedish is a lot more flexible in this respect than English. You can also front an object but because it\u2019s not really that common, it should be done with care. For example:<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s front an object \u2013 which in this case is our \u201cturkey and pie\u201d:<\/p>\n See how \u201ckalkon och paj<\/strong>\u201d (turkey and pie)<\/em> is followed by a verb? Remember, no matter what you stick at the front of a sentence, it must be followed by a verb. I know in the beginning it will feel like you need to put a subject there too, and that is one of the most common mistakes that people who are learning Swedish tend to make.<\/p>\n So now, let\u2019s front the adverbial, shall we?<\/p>\n See, it\u2019s not all that complicated. Different grammar books make it sound so hard and use all those fancy big words when explaining word order. Yet all you need to remember is this:<\/p>\n Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! I don\u2019t. I did it twice in the past, because my dearly beloved demanded turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. Turkeys are easy to come by here, our local Ica MAXI carries them. And during November you can even spot frozen cranberries, so if you\u2019re really dedicated you…<\/p>\n\n
\nIn English we make sentences like this:<\/p>\n\n
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\n\u201cI USA<\/strong>\u201d is an adverbial and you can begin a sentence with an adverbial as long as it is followed by a verb. This process is called \u201cfronting the adverbial<\/strong>\u201d and is perfectly correct and legitimate.<\/p>\n\n
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