Matlådan är alldeles full.

Matlådan is a compound noun:

• mat = food
• låda = box, container

So matlåda literally means food box/container, and in everyday Swedish it often means a lunchbox or a container of prepared food.

Swedish forms compounds very freely, and they are usually written as one word, much more often than in English.

The ending -n in matlådan is the definite article attached to the noun, so matlådan means the lunchbox / the food container.

In Swedish, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

Here:

• en matlåda = a lunchbox
• matlådan = the lunchbox

So the -n at the end is doing the job that the does in English.

Är is the present tense of the irregular verb vara, which means to be.

So:

• är = is / are / am, depending on context

In Swedish, the verb does not change depending on the subject the way English does. So you use är with all persons in the present tense:

• jag är
• du är
• han är
• vi är

That makes Swedish simpler than English in this area.

Alldeles is an adverb that strengthens what follows. In this sentence, it means something like:

• completely
• entirely
• sometimes quite or really, depending on tone and context

So alldeles full means completely full or totally full.

It is an intensifier, not an adjective, so it does not change form here.

Usually, alldeles full strongly suggests completely full.

But like many intensifiers, it can sometimes be used a little loosely in everyday speech, more like really full. Context and tone matter.

In a straightforward sentence like this one, the safest interpretation is completely full.

Because full is agreeing with matlådan, which is a singular en-word.

After är, adjectives usually agree with the subject in gender and number:

• en-word singular: full
• ett-word singular: fullt
• plural: fulla

Examples:

• Matlådan är full.
• Huset är fullt.
• Lådorna är fulla.

Since matlåda is an en-word, full is the correct form.

This is a very common question.

The short answer: after är, the adjective is predicative, and predicative adjectives do not take the definite form.

So you say:

• Matlådan är full. = The lunchbox is full.

But when the adjective comes directly before the noun, it is attributive, and then definiteness matters:

• den fulla matlådan = the full lunchbox

So compare:

• den fulla matlådan
• matlådan är full

That difference is normal in Swedish.

It is a very basic Swedish statement:

• Matlådan = subject
• är = verb
• alldeles = adverb
• full = adjective/predicative complement

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + adverb + adjective

This is a standard word order for a simple declarative sentence in Swedish.

Yes. That is completely correct.

• Matlådan är full = The lunchbox is full.
• Matlådan är alldeles full = The lunchbox is completely/totally full.

Adding alldeles just makes the statement stronger.

Yes, but the basic version is the most neutral:

• Matlådan är alldeles full.

If you move something to the front for emphasis, Swedish still keeps the finite verb in second position:

• Alldeles full är matlådan.

That version is possible, but it sounds marked or literary. For normal everyday speech, the original order is best.

You learn it together with the noun:

• en matlåda

That tells you several useful things:

• the indefinite form is en matlåda
• the definite singular is matlådan
• adjectives after är will use the en-word singular form, such as full

Unfortunately, noun gender in Swedish often has to be memorized, although some patterns can help over time.

A rough guide is:

• mat sounds a bit like maht
• lå has a long å sound, roughly like the vowel in British law
• dan is lighter at the end

A rough English-style approximation would be:

MAHT-loh-dan

The main stress is on the first part of the compound: MATlådan.

Mostly yes. Full in Swedish often means full in the physical sense:

• Glaset är fullt. = The glass is full.
• Bussen är full. = The bus is full.

But like English, it can also have other meanings in different contexts. For example, in colloquial Swedish, full can also mean drunk.

In Matlådan är alldeles full, only the physical meaning makes sense.