# Swedish: Ja, det har han



## fab_

Hey all, och god middag! 

I just came across the sentence 'ja, det har han' which was translated as 'Yes, he has'. The sentence 'ja det har han' was in reply to:

Har pojken på sig en röd jacka?
- Ja, det har han.


I'm just wondering why it isn't 'Ja, han har' ? Could you say 'han har' in this context at all?

Can anyone shed some light on this? 
Snälla och tack.


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## Åvävvla

Hej 

No, one cannot. "Ja, det har han" is correct and the other way isn't.


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## Lars H

Åvävvla said:


> Hej
> 
> No, one cannot. "Ja, det har han" is correct and the other way isn't.



Agree completely.

If you say "han har" you formulate an interrupted sentence that will lead to the inevitable question "has what?". But, by starting with "det" you connect "har han" with whatever has been said before.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if also in older English it was normal to say "Yes, that he has" but the "that" has been lost over time.

And then the word order. "...har han" is the only correct way to say it. Do it the other way round and it will sound like Obi Wan Kanobi


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## fab_

Fantastic help, thanks so much - yet again! I'm starting to feel that aspects of learning Swedish are either very easy or quite 'difficult'. So it balances out in the end really 

<< --- removed by moderator --- >>


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## Cagey

Please confine comments to the topic laid out in the original post, which is about Swedish, and a particular phrase in Swedish.  

Cagey, moderator.


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## sakvaka

This is one of the special uses of the determinative pronoun "det".

It is used to refer to the whole sentence or an undefined thing.
_Vad var det? - Brandlarmet._
_Talar ni finska? - Nej, det gör jag inte._

It can also refer to predicative or object of _ha_. In English the word "so" is used (in Finnish "so" or "such").

_Jag är så trött! - Det är jag också!
Du har en vacker lampa, men det har vi också_.

BTW, does the grammar accept "så är jag"?


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## Lars H

sakvaka said:


> BTW, does the grammar accept "så är jag"?



No, it does not. 
But what you _could_ say is "Sådan är jag", meaning "such a person am I"


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## basslop

To the original question: It's the same in Norwegian, as Lars H explained in his first answer. However mostly we would just answer "Ja", unless we want to underline something, like "Ja, det har han"/"Ja, det har han"/"Ja, det har han". My guess is that it's the same in Swedish.


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## Lars H

basslop said:


> To the original question: It's the same in Norwegian, as Lars H explained in his first answer. However mostly we would just answer "Ja", unless we want to underline something, like "Ja, det har han"/"Ja, det har han"/"Ja, det har han". My guess is that it's the same in Swedish.



Similar.
It feels a little bit "stubbed" to only say "Ja" but it is not incorrect to do so.
And yes, by stressing the key word, you can get different meanings.

But in Swedish that would require an ending verb, as "Ja, det har han gjort/sagt/betalat" to sound good.

This is similar English: "Yes, he has paid", "..he has paid" or "that he has paid". By stressing the key word, you get different meanings.


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