There is an infinite number of grammatical concepts in any language. Swedish is no exception.<\/p>\n
Although Swedish, in general, has a relatively simple grammatical structure compared to many other European languages (sorry English readers – it’s the truth!), there are still grammatical concepts that are relatively complicated – or so simple that they seem complicated in the sense that they might seem hard to distinguish. One example of this is the Swedish equivalent of English “unless” – om inte<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Here is an example of om inte<\/em> used in a sentence:<\/p>\n Matchen kommer forts\u00e4tta till klockan fem – om inte<\/strong> det b\u00f6rjar regna.<\/em> – The game will continue until five o’clock – unless<\/strong> it starts raining.<\/p>\n Om inte<\/em> can be literally translated as “if not”. In English, you of course wouldn’t say “if not it starts raining”. “Unless” obviously has a different meaning from “if not” in English.<\/p>\n In Swedish om inte<\/em> is read exactly as if it meant “if not”. In fact, you can use it to say just that:<\/p>\n Jag tror att din bror \u00e4r hemma. Om inte<\/strong> kan jag ringa honom.<\/em> – I think that your brother is home. If not<\/strong>, I can call him.<\/p>\n However, in the sense of “unless”, the grammar is different. As a simple comparison, take a look at the grammatical difference between these two phrases:<\/p>\n A: om inte<\/strong> batteriet har<\/span> d\u00f6tt<\/em> – unless<\/strong> the battery has died When using om inte<\/em> to mean “unless”, what follows it should be in regular sentence order (i.e. not question order). When using om inte<\/em> to mean “if not”, the following sentence should be in reverse order (i.e. question order). This is because om inte<\/em> “unless” is a subordinating conjunction which introduces the clause that follows it, whereas om inte<\/em> “if not” is a dependent clause that is separate from the clause that follows it. Here’s a great post that explains the grammar in more detail.<\/a><\/p>\n No worries – this will be easy as pie once you’ve heard om inte<\/em> used enough times. Lycka till!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an infinite number of grammatical concepts in any language. Swedish is no exception. Although Swedish, in general, has a relatively simple grammatical structure compared to many other European languages (sorry English readers – it’s the truth!), there are still grammatical concepts that are relatively complicated – or so simple that they seem complicated…<\/p>\n
\nB: om inte<\/strong> har batteriet<\/span> d\u00f6tt<\/em> – if not<\/strong>, the battery has died<\/p>\n