Vittnet pratar med advokaten.

Because Swedish usually puts the definite article on the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

• ett vittne = a witness

• vittnet = the witness

• en advokat = a lawyer
• advokaten = the lawyer

So in this sentence, both nouns are definite: the witness and the lawyer.

The endings are different because the nouns belong to different grammatical genders.

• vittne is an ett-word: ett vittne
• advokat is an en-word: en advokat

In the definite singular, Swedish often changes them like this:

• ett-word → usually -et or -t
• en-word → usually -en

So:

• ett vittne → vittnet
• en advokat → advokaten

This is a very common pattern in Swedish.

Unfortunately, there is no single rule that always tells you whether a noun is en or ett. You usually need to learn the noun together with its article:

• ett vittne
• en advokat

That said, en-words are much more common than ett-words in Swedish. So advokat being an en-word is not surprising. But vittne is one of those nouns you simply need to memorize as ett vittne.

A good habit is to never learn a noun by itself. Learn:

• ett vittne, not just vittne
• en advokat, not just advokat

Pratar is the present tense of the verb prata, which means to talk or to speak.

• prata = to talk
• pratar = talk/talks/am talking/is talking/are talking, depending on context

One nice thing about Swedish is that the verb form does not change for different persons:

• jag pratar = I talk / I am talking
• du pratar = you talk / you are talking
• vittnet pratar = the witness talks / is talking

So Swedish is simpler than English here.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

So Vittnet pratar med advokaten could mean:

• The witness talks with the lawyer
• The witness is talking with the lawyer

Swedish often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the progressive form. The situation usually makes the meaning clear.

If you really want to stress an ongoing action in Swedish, you can sometimes use other constructions, but in everyday Swedish the plain present tense is very common.

Because prata med någon means to talk with someone or to talk to someone.

Here:

• med = with

So:

• prata med advokaten = talk with the lawyer / talk to the lawyer

In English, talk with and talk to are both common. Swedish often uses med in this kind of sentence.

Be careful not to confuse it with:

• prata om något = talk about something

So:

• prata med advokaten = talk with the lawyer
• prata om advokaten = talk about the lawyer

Yes, in this sentence it is very similar to English:

• Vittnet = subject
• pratar = verb
• med advokaten = prepositional phrase

So the order is:

subject + verb + prepositional phrase

That gives:

Vittnet pratar med advokaten.

However, Swedish has an important verb-second rule in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually stays in the second position.

For example:

• Nu pratar vittnet med advokaten. = Now the witness is talking with the lawyer.

Here, Nu comes first, so the verb pratar must still stay second, and the subject vittnet moves after it.

Yes, absolutely.

• pratar is everyday, conversational, and very common
• talar also means speaks/talks, but often sounds a bit more formal or neutral

So both are possible:

• Vittnet pratar med advokaten.
• Vittnet talar med advokaten.

In many situations, pratar sounds more natural in casual speech.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is:

VITT-net PRAH-tar med ad-vo-KAH-ten

A few helpful notes:

• vittnet has the stress at the beginning: VITT-
• pratar also has the stress on the first syllable: PRAH-
• advokaten has the main stress on KAH

A few sound details:

• Swedish r is not the same as a typical English r
• The a in stressed syllables is usually broader than in English
• The double consonants in spelling often show that the vowel before them is short, so vitt- has a short vowel sound

If you want to sound natural, focus first on the stress pattern more than on copying every individual sound perfectly.

In many learning contexts, yes, advokat is translated as lawyer.

But there is a nuance: in Sweden, advokat is a specific professional title, not just any person working in law. So in real-life legal contexts, it can be slightly more specific than the broad English word lawyer.

For basic learning, though, translating advokaten as the lawyer is completely fine.