Matavfallet ligger i komposten.

Because Swedish usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word in front.

• matavfall = food waste
• matavfallet = the food waste

The ending -et is used because matavfall is a neuter noun: ett matavfall.

A useful thing to know is that the last part of a compound decides the gender. Here, the last part is avfall, and avfall is a neuter noun, so the whole compound is neuter too.

It is a compound noun:

• mat = food
• avfall = waste

So matavfall literally means food waste.

This is very common in Swedish: instead of using several separate words, Swedish often builds one long compound noun.

In Swedish, it is very common to use verbs like ligga, stå, and sitta where English would simply use be.

Here, ligger comes from ligga, which usually means lie or be lying, but in many cases it just means that something is located somewhere.

So:

• Matavfallet ligger i komposten = the food waste is in the compost

Using är would be understandable, but ligger sounds more natural in this kind of sentence.

Not necessarily. Sometimes ligga does describe actual physical position, but very often it is just the natural Swedish way to describe where something is.

So in this sentence, you do not need to imagine the food waste as carefully lying down. It simply means it is there, in that place.

The dictionary form is ligga.

Some useful forms are:

• infinitive: ligga
• present: ligger
• past: låg
• supine: legat

So ligger is the present tense: lies / is located.

i means in or inside.

So i komposten means in the compost.

The noun komposten is the definite form of kompost:

• en kompost = a compost / compost bin / compost heap
• komposten = the compost / the compost bin / the compost heap

The ending is -en because kompost is a common gender noun: en kompost.

It can mean either, depending on context.

kompost can refer to:

• a compost heap
• a compost bin
• the compost as a place where organic waste goes

So i komposten could mean in the compost bin or in the compost heap. The exact meaning depends on the situation.

Because the sentence is talking about specific things:

• matavfallet = the food waste
• komposten = the compost

Swedish often uses definite forms when both speaker and listener can identify what is being talked about.

If you wanted a less specific idea, Swedish might use a different structure, for example:

• Det finns matavfall i komposten = There is food waste in the compost

That sounds more like introducing the existence of food waste there, rather than talking about a specific known pile of food waste.

The word order is the normal Swedish pattern:

• Matavfallet = subject
• ligger = verb
• i komposten = place expression

So it follows:

subject + verb + adverbial

This is also an example of the Swedish V2 rule, where the finite verb normally comes in the second position.

For example, you can also say:

• I komposten ligger matavfallet.

Here, I komposten comes first, and the verb ligger still stays in second position.

Yes. That is a very natural alternative, but it has a slightly different focus.

• Matavfallet ligger i komposten focuses on the location of a specific thing: the food waste
• Det finns matavfall i komposten focuses on existence: there is food waste in the compost

Both are correct, but they are not exactly identical in tone or emphasis.