Learn Hardcore Swedish: Vid soffan hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket. - By the sofa a lamp hangs on the wall near the ceiling.

Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position in the sentence. That doesn’t mean the subject has to be first; any element can be placed first for emphasis, but then the verb must come right after it.

Vid soffan hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket.
– The location vid soffan is put first, so the sentence highlights where something is. After that fronted phrase, the verb hänger must come second.
En lampa hänger på väggen nära taket vid soffan.
– Here the subject en lampa is first, so the sentence feels more like “A lamp is hanging…” and only then adds where.

What you can’t say is:
✗ Vid soffan en lampa hänger på väggen… (verb is no longer in second position → ungrammatical in Swedish)

Why do we say hänger and not use är (like “is”) or something like finns?

Swedish very often uses “position verbs” to describe where things are:

stå(r) – stand
ligger – lie
sitter – sit
hänger – hang

So hänger in en lampa hänger på väggen describes the lamp’s position, not an action that is happening right now. It corresponds to English “is hanging” as a state.

Alternatives and their nuances:

Vid soffan hänger en lampa…
– Neutral, descriptive: “By the sofa, a lamp is (in a hanging position)…”
Vid soffan finns en lampa på väggen…
– Uses finns (“there exists/is found”), sounds a bit more like an inventory: “By the sofa there is a lamp on the wall…”
Vid soffan är en lampa på väggen…
– Grammatically possible, but unusual and a bit awkward in Swedish when talking about location. Swedes much prefer hänger / står / ligger / sitter in this kind of sentence.

Also, Swedish present tense covers both English “hangs” and “is hanging”. There is no separate continuous form.

Why is it soffan and taket, but en lampa? Why not lampan too?

This is about definiteness (the vs a) and information structure (old vs new information).

Forms:

en soffa = a sofa
soffan = the sofa
ett tak = a roof/ceiling
taket = the roof/ceiling
en lampa = a lamp
lampan = the lamp

In the sentence:

soffan = the sofa → We assume there is a specific sofa already known in the context (e.g. “the sofa in this living room”).
taket = the ceiling → There is usually only one ceiling per room; it’s naturally treated as specific/given.
en lampa = a lamp → This lamp is new information being introduced for the first time, so it’s indefinite.

If you mentioned the lamp again, you’d switch to the definite form:

Vid soffan hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket. Lampan är väldigt stark.
“By the sofa, a lamp is hanging on the wall near the ceiling. The lamp is very bright.”

What is the nuance of vid soffan? How is vid different from bredvid or nära?

All three can be translated with “near/by,” but they’re not identical:

vid soffan
- literally “at/by the sofa”
- quite neutral, means “in the area of the sofa”, often used for things next to or by the side of something
- works very well in this sentence
bredvid soffan
- literally “beside the sofa”
- usually implies right next to something, side by side
- would sound like the lamp is directly beside the sofa (for a wall lamp this is still okay, just a bit more specific)
nära soffan
- “near the sofa”
- more vague distance, it could be a bit away but still relatively close

So:

Vid soffan hänger en lampa… = There’s a lamp in the sofa area, by the sofa.
Bredvid soffan hänger en lampa… = The lamp is (more clearly) right beside the sofa.
Nära soffan hänger en lampa… = The lamp is somewhere near the sofa, but the exact position is less precise.

Why is it på väggen and not i väggen or mot väggen?

The choice of preposition changes the picture in Swedish:

på väggen = on the wall, on the surface of the wall
- used when something is hanging on or attached to the wall: en tavla på väggen, en lampa på väggen
i väggen = in the wall
- used for things inside or built into the wall: cables, pipes, maybe a recessed fixture
- en kontakt i väggen = a wall socket in the wall
mot väggen = against the wall
- something is leaning or standing against the wall: soffan står mot väggen

So en lampa på väggen is exactly parallel to English “a lamp on the wall”.
En lampa i väggen would suggest it is somehow inside or recessed into the wall, which is not the usual mental image of a wall lamp.

Why do we say nära taket and not nära till taket or something like that?

In this sentence nära is used as a preposition and it directly takes a noun (with or without a definite ending), without any extra preposition:

nära taket – near the ceiling
nära huset – near the house
nära mig – near me

You do not add till here:

✗ nära till taket (wrong in this meaning)
✓ nära taket

If you want a slightly different style, you could say:

i närheten av taket – in the vicinity of the ceiling

But in the original sentence, nära taket is the normal and correct form.

Why is the phrase på väggen nära taket in that order? Could I say nära taket på väggen instead?

Both word orders can be grammatically correct, but they sound a bit different.

på väggen nära taket
- very natural order: på väggen (on the wall) is the main location
- then nära taket adds a more specific detail about where on the wall: “on the wall, near the ceiling”
nära taket på väggen
- possible, but less common in this context
- feels like you’re emphasizing “near the ceiling” first and then clarifying that this is on the wall

In practice, Swedish tends to go from more general location to more specific, which is exactly what på väggen nära taket does.

How would I say that the lamp hangs from the ceiling itself, not on the wall? I’ve seen i taket and på taket and I’m confused.

For something attached to the indoor ceiling, Swedish usually uses i taket:

En lampa hänger i taket.
“A lamp is hanging in the ceiling.” (= from the ceiling)

In your original sentence, we’re talking about a lamp on the wall, so we say:

…en lampa på väggen nära taket.
– on the wall, close to the ceiling

Be careful with på taket:

på taket usually means on the roof (outside on the top of the house), not on the indoor ceiling.

So:

i taket = attached to / hanging from the indoor ceiling
på taket = on the outside roof
nära taket = near the ceiling (could be on a wall, for example)

Why is it en lampa and not ett lampa? How do I know which article to use?

Swedish has two grammatical genders for nouns:

Common gender (traditionally “en-words”)
Neuter gender (“ett-words”)

The indefinite articles are:

en for common gender nouns
ett for neuter nouns

The noun lampa is a common gender noun, so you must say:

en lampa (a lamp)
lampan (the lamp)
lampor (lamps)
lamporna (the lamps)

There is no rule you can apply just from the ending -a; some -a words are ett (e.g. ett öga – an eye). You usually have to learn the gender with the noun, and dictionaries will list nouns with their article, for example:

en lampa
ett tak
en soffa

Could I also say Det hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket vid soffan? How is that different from the original?

Yes, that’s a common Swedish pattern called an existential “det”-construction.

Det hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket vid soffan.
– literally: “There hangs a lamp on the wall near the ceiling by the sofa.”
– very close to English “There is a lamp hanging on the wall…”

Compare:

Vid soffan hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket.
– Starts with the location vid soffan. Focus: the sofa area, then what is there.
Det hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket vid soffan.
– Starts with det as a dummy subject. Focus: the existence of a lamp; it introduces a new object in the scene.

Both are natural; the choice depends on whether you want to foreground the place or the fact that there is a lamp.

Do I need a comma after Vid soffan in Swedish, like in English “By the sofa, a lamp is hanging…”?

No comma is needed here in normal Swedish writing:

Vid soffan hänger en lampa på väggen nära taket.

Swedish generally uses fewer commas than English, and you usually do not put a comma between a short fronted adverbial (like Vid soffan) and the following main clause.

A comma might appear if the initial phrase is long or complex, or if you want a special rhetorical effect, but for a short phrase like Vid soffan you simply write it without a comma.