Learn Hardcore Swedish: Jag läste själv vid ett stort universitet i en annan stad. - I myself studied at a large university in another city.

In this sentence, Jag läste vid ett stort universitet naturally means I studied at a large university, not I was reading at a large university.

You could say:

Jag studerade vid ett stort universitet – a bit more formal/neutral.
Jag pluggade vid ett stort universitet – more colloquial/informal.

All three are grammatically correct. Läste is just the most typical, idiomatic choice in many contexts when talking about university studies.

What nuance does själv add in Jag läste själv vid ett stort universitet?

Själv here means roughly myself and is usually contrastive:

Jag läste själv vid ett stort universitet
→ I myself studied at a large university (as opposed to, say, my siblings or other people).

So the function is often:

to highlight “me, personally”, or
to contrast with someone else’s experience.

It doesn’t automatically mean “alone” in the sense of without classmates. That meaning is possible in other contexts, but in this particular sentence, most listeners would understand it as emphasis on I myself rather than I studied alone.

If you really want to stress the “alone” meaning, you might say:

Jag brukade läsa helt själv på biblioteket. – I used to study completely alone in the library.

Could själv go somewhere else in the sentence, like Jag själv läste vid ett stort universitet? Does the meaning change?

Yes, you can move själv, and the nuance shifts slightly:

Jag läste själv vid ett stort universitet
→ Neutral, everyday way to say I myself studied at a large university.
Jag själv läste vid ett stort universitet
→ Slightly stronger emphasis on jag, more contrastive:
I myself studied at a large university (maybe implying even if others didn’t).
Själv läste jag vid ett stort universitet
→ Also very contrastive; often used when you’re comparing:
(But) I, for my part, studied at a large university.

All are grammatical; the differences are about emphasis and style, not correctness.

Why is the preposition vid used with universitet instead of på or i?

With institutions like universities, Swedish often uses vid to mean at in the sense of being affiliated with or studying/working at:

läsa vid ett universitet – study at a university
jobba vid universitetet – work at the university

Alternatives:

på universitetet – also very common in everyday speech and usually interchangeable in meaning.
i universitetet – would usually be understood more literally as inside the building, not as being affiliated with the institution.

So:

Jag läste vid ett stort universitet – very idiomatic and slightly more formal.
Jag läste på ett stort universitet – also natural, maybe a bit more colloquial in some varieties.
Jag läste i ett stort universitet – sounds odd in this sense; not used for “studying at” as an institution.

Why is it ett stort universitet and not en stor universitet?

In Swedish, every noun has a grammatical gender, either en-word (common gender) or ett‑word (neuter).

universitet is an ett-word: ett universitet

For indefinite singular neuter nouns, the adjective takes a -t ending:

ett stort universitet
- ett – neuter indefinite article
- stor → stort – neuter adjective form
- universitet – neuter noun

If it were a common-gender noun (an en-word), you would say:

en stor stad – stad is an en-word, so stor (not stort).

Why is the past tense läste and not something like har läst?

Both are possible, but they’re used differently:

Jag läste vid ett stort universitet
→ Simple past. The event is located in the past and is seen as a finished, completed period. Very natural in narratives and when you’re simply stating a past fact.
Jag har läst vid ett stort universitet
→ Present perfect. Focuses more on the result or relevance to the present, like I have studied at a large university (so I have that experience now).

English often prefers have studied, but Swedish often prefers the simple past (läste) where English uses the present perfect, especially when the time period is clearly in the past or just background information in a story.

Why is it i en annan stad and not på en annan stad?

For cities and towns, Swedish normally uses i for in:

i Stockholm – in Stockholm
i en liten stad – in a small town
i en annan stad – in another city

På can be used with some place types (islands, squares, open areas, etc.) and in fixed expressions:

på landet – in the countryside
på stan – in town / downtown (colloquial, fixed phrase)
på universitetet – at the university

But when you speak generally about a city or town, i is the default:

i en annan stad is correct and natural.
på en annan stad is ungrammatical in standard Swedish.

Why is it en annan stad and not i en annan staden or i den andra staden?

A few things are going on:

Indefinite vs definite
- en stad – a city (indefinite)
- staden – the city (definite)
Annan
- noun
- With annan (other/another), the noun is typically indefinite:
  - en annan stad – another city / a different city
When you want the other city (a specific one both speakers know), you’d say:
- i den andra staden – in the other city

So:

i en annan stad – in another city (unspecified)
i den andra staden – in the other city (a particular one)

i en annan staden mixes an indefinite article (en) with a definite noun (staden), which is ungrammatical.

How is läste formed from läsa? Is there a rule?

Läsa (to read / to study) is a fairly common verb with a slightly irregular past:

infinitive: läsa
present: läser
past (preterite): läste
supine (used with har): läst

Pattern:

vowel change ä ↔ ä here (spelling shift from läsa to läste
- -ste),
addition of -te (spelled -ste because of the s).

You mostly need to learn this as part of the verb’s paradigm. But it belongs to a big group of verbs like:

läsa – läste – läst
resa – reste – rest (to travel)
röka – rökte – rökt (to smoke)

They often form the past with -te/-de (or -ste after s), sometimes with a slight vowel or consonant change.

How do you pronounce själv and läste?

Very roughly:

själv
- sj-: the Swedish sj‑sound, a voiceless fricative often written /ɧ/ in phonetics. It doesn’t exist in standard English; it’s produced somewhere between sh and a throaty h.
- ä: like “e” in English “bed”, but a bit more front/open.
- -lv: the l is clear, and the v is a normal v sound.
IPA (Central Swedish): /ɧɛlv/
läste
- l: as in English.
- ä: again like “e” in “bed.”
- st: like English “st” in “stop.”
- e at the end: short e sound, similar to the e in “set.”
IPA (Central Swedish): /ˈlɛːste/
The first syllable läs- is stressed and has a long vowel (läː), the second syllable -te is short.