Jag planerar hellre veckomenyn än att köpa för mycket mat.

I would rather plan the weekly menu than buy too much food.

Breakdown of Jag planerar hellre veckomenyn än att köpa för mycket mat.

• jag: I
• maten: the food
• köpa: to buy
• för: too

Questions & Answers about Jag planerar hellre veckomenyn än att köpa för mycket mat.

What does the pattern hellre ... än att ... mean in this sentence?

It is a very common Swedish pattern for expressing preference between two actions: rather ... than ...

• hellre = rather / preferably
• än = than
• att + infinitive = to do something

So the structure is:

Jag planerar hellre X än att göra Y.

It compares two choices and says the speaker prefers the first one.

Why is hellre placed after planerar?

Because in a normal Swedish main clause, the finite verb usually comes early, and adverbs like hellre often come right after it.

So:

• Jag planerar hellre ... = natural
• Jag hellre planerar ... = not the normal word order

This is one of the word-order patterns English speakers often need to get used to in Swedish.

Why is there att after än?