Spelpjäserna ligger överallt.

Because Swedish very often makes compound nouns by writing them as one word.

Here, spelpjäserna is built from:

• spel = game
• pjäs = piece, token
• plural ending -er
• definite plural ending -na

So the base noun is spelpjäs = game piece, and the full form spelpjäserna means the game pieces.

This is completely normal in Swedish. English often uses separate words where Swedish prefers one compound.

In Swedish, the is often attached to the noun as an ending instead of being a separate word.

With spelpjäs, the forms are:

• en spelpjäs = a game piece
• spelpjäsen = the game piece
• spelpjäser = game pieces
• spelpjäserna = the game pieces

So in this sentence, -na is doing the job of the.

Ligger is the present tense of ligga, which means to lie or to be lying.

A few useful forms are:

• ligga = infinitive
• ligger = present
• låg = past
• legat = supine/past participle form used in perfect tenses

So Spelpjäserna ligger överallt literally has the sense of The game pieces are lying everywhere.

Swedish often prefers a position verb like ligga, stå, or sitta when talking about where something is physically located.

So:

• är = is/are
• ligger = is lying / are lying

In English, The game pieces are everywhere sounds perfectly natural.
In Swedish, Spelpjäserna ligger överallt sounds more physical and idiomatic, because it suggests the pieces are scattered around in actual space.

You can say Spelpjäserna är överallt, and people will understand it, but ligger is more natural here.

This is a very common Swedish question, because Swedish uses different verbs depending on how something is positioned.

• ligger is used for things that are lying flat, scattered, or not upright
• står is used for things that are standing upright
• sitter is used for things that are attached, seated, or in certain fixed positions

So Spelpjäserna ligger överallt suggests the pieces are lying around in a mess.

If you were talking about pieces arranged upright on a board, står might be more natural, for example:

• Pjäserna står på brädet = The pieces are standing on the board

So the choice of verb gives extra visual information.

Överallt is an adverb meaning everywhere.

It is normally written as one word.

In this sentence, it tells you where the game pieces are: everywhere.

A few similar adverbs are:

• här = here
• där = there
• någonstans = somewhere
• ingenstans = nowhere
• överallt = everywhere

This is the normal Swedish main-clause order:

• Spelpjäserna = subject
• ligger = verb
• överallt = adverb

So it follows the common pattern:

subject + verb + adverb

This is the most neutral way to say it.

You can move överallt to the front for emphasis, but then Swedish keeps the verb in second position:

• Överallt ligger spelpjäserna

That sounds more marked or literary. The original sentence is the natural everyday version.

Yes. That sentence is also correct, but it has a slightly different feel.

• Spelpjäserna ligger överallt = The game pieces are lying everywhere

  • focuses on those specific pieces and their physical position

• Det finns spelpjäser överallt = There are game pieces everywhere

  • focuses more on their existence/presence

So both work, but the original sentence is more concrete and visual.

Usually it refers to a game piece, playing piece, or token used in a game. The exact English translation depends on context.

It can be used for:

• a board-game token
• a playing piece
• sometimes a piece in a game system generally

In some contexts, a more specific word may be used, but spelpjäs is a good general word for a game piece.

Yes, that is very helpful in Swedish. For a noun like spelpjäs, it is best to learn:

• en spelpjäs
• spelpjäsen
• spelpjäser
• spelpjäserna

That way you automatically know:

• the gender: en
• the singular definite form
• the plural form
• the definite plural form

Since Swedish endings change from noun to noun, learning the full pattern saves a lot of mistakes later.