Läraren lär oss att skulptera.

The basic noun is en lärare, which means a teacher.

In Swedish, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun, so:

• en lärare = a teacher
• läraren = the teacher

Because lärare already ends in -e, the definite ending is just -n in practice, giving läraren.

Lär is the present tense of lära.

So lär can mean:

• teaches
• is teaching

Swedish does not usually separate those two ideas the way English does. Context decides which English translation sounds best.

It can mean either, depending on the construction.

• lära någon = teach someone
• lära sig = learn

In this sentence, lär oss means teaches us, so lära is being used in the teach sense.

A useful comparison:

• Läraren lär oss att skulptera. = The teacher teaches us to sculpt.
• Vi lär oss att skulptera. = We are learning to sculpt.

Because oss is the object form, while vi is the subject form.

Compare English:

• we = subject
• us = object

So Swedish works the same way here:

• vi = we
• oss = us

Since the teacher is doing the action to us, Swedish uses oss.

Att is the infinitive marker, usually corresponding to English to.

So:

• att skulptera = to sculpt

After lära någon, Swedish normally uses att before the next verb:

• lära oss att skulptera = teach us to sculpt

Swedish usually uses the infinitive here, not a gerund-style form.

So where English might say:

• to sculpt
• sometimes sculpting, depending on the sentence

Swedish normally says:

• att skulptera

That is the standard and natural structure after lära någon.

The structure is:

• Läraren = subject
• lär = finite verb
• oss = object
• att skulptera = infinitive phrase

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + object + infinitive phrase

This is a normal Swedish main clause.

Also remember that Swedish main clauses follow the verb-second rule. If you move something else to the front, the finite verb still stays in second position:

• I dag lär läraren oss att skulptera.

In standard Swedish, you should keep it.

The normal pattern is:

• lära någon att göra något

So:

• Läraren lär oss att skulptera is standard.

Leaving out att would sound nonstandard or at least much less natural for a learner to copy.

By itself, lärare can be either:

• singular indefinite: a teacher
• plural indefinite: teachers

But in this sentence, you have läraren, which is clearly definite singular:

• läraren = the teacher

Useful forms:

• en lärare = a teacher
• lärare = teachers
• läraren = the teacher
• lärarna = the teachers

A rough guide:

• läraren ≈ LAIR-ah-ren
• lär ≈ lair
• oss has a short vowel, roughly like oss with a rounded o
• skulptera ≈ skulp-TE-ra

Two useful pronunciation notes:

• The ä in lär is roughly similar to the vowel in English air for many speakers.
• The sk in skulptera is a hard sk sound, not the Swedish sh-like sound, because it comes before u.