Traditional word order in Swedish
In Swedish, the traditional word order follows a basic pattern where the first element of the sentence is a subject, followed by a verb and an object.
Subject | Verb | Object |
Eric | köpte | hunden. |
Hunden | älskar | katten. |
Inverted word order in Swedish
The inverted word order is needed when the sentence starts with something else than a subject, for example with an expression describing a place or a time. In an inverted word order, the subject and the verb change places.
Swedish word order | |||
Adverb | Verb | Subject | Object |
Sedan | köpte | han | en bil. |
Då | gick | alla | till matsalen. |
English word order
In English, traditional word order is used where Swedish uses inverted word order.
English word order | |||
Adverb | Subject | Verb | Object |
Then | he | bought | a car. |
Then | everyone | went | to the canteen. |