Sentence Adverbs
What are sentence adverbs?
Sentence adverbs affect the meaning of a whole sentence or clause rather than simply describing how, when, or where an action takes place.
One of the most important Swedish sentence adverbs is inte which negates the whole sentence or makes a statement untrue.
Det ska inte regna idag.It is not supposed to rain today.
Sentence adverbs can also express how certain a speaker is of what is being said.
Det ska nog regna idag.It will probably rain today.
Det ska ju regna idag.It is supposed to rain today, as you know.
Det kanske ska regna idag.It might rain today.
Sentence adverbs in main clauses
In a neutral main clause, the sentence adverb normally comes after the finite verb.
Det går inte bra.It is not going well.
If something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb still comes second, followed by the subject and then the sentence adverb.
Idag går det inte bra.Today it is not going well.
Kanske lives in its own world and can break the usual word-order rule. It can appear in several positions, even in second position, where you would normally expect a verb: Det kanske ska regna idag.(It might rain today.)
Sentence adverbs in subordinate clauses
In a subordinate clause, the usual order is different. The sentence adverb comes before the finite verb.
Jag stannar hemma idag eftersom jag inte mår så bra.I am staying home today because I do not feel very well.
Jag mår inte så bra idag.I do not feel very well today.
This is commonly known as the BIFF-rule, which is mentioned in the article about subordinate clauses