Till middag lagar hon ofta kött med ris eller pasta.

For dinner she often cooks meat with rice or pasta.

Breakdown of Till middag lagar hon ofta kött med ris eller pasta.

• middagen: the dinner
• laga: to cook
• eller: or
• ofta: often
• hon: she
• med: with
• till: for
• köttet: the meat
• riset: the rice
• pastan: the pasta

Questions & Answers about Till middag lagar hon ofta kött med ris eller pasta.

What does till middag literally mean, and why is till used here instead of something like på or för?

Literally, till middag is “to dinner,” but in Swedish this fixed pattern means “for dinner (to eat)”.

With meals, Swedish very often uses till:

• till frukost – for breakfast
• till lunch – for lunch
• till middag – for dinner

You generally don’t say för middag in this sense.

På middag exists, but it usually means “at a (formal) dinner / dinner party,” as in being a guest:

• Vi är bjudna på middag. – We are invited to dinner (at someone’s place / a party).

So here, till middag is the natural way to say “for dinner (she usually cooks …)”.

Can I also say Hon lagar ofta kött med ris eller pasta till middag? Is that equally correct?

Yes, that sentence is fully correct and very natural:

• Till middag lagar hon ofta kött med ris eller pasta.
• Hon lagar ofta kött med ris eller pasta till middag.

Both mean the same thing. The difference is only in what you put first (what you emphasize slightly):

• Starting with Till middag puts a little more focus on the time/occasion (for dinner).
• Starting with Hon is a more neutral, default order.

Swedish allows a lot of freedom in moving time and place expressions around, as long as you keep the verb in second position in main clauses (the V2 rule, explained below).

Why is the word order Till middag lagar hon… and not Till middag hon lagar…?

Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position, no matter what comes first.

In this sentence:

1. Till middag = first element (a time expression)
2. lagar = finite verb (present tense of laga) → must come second
3. hon = subject, comes after the verb

So:

• ✅ Till middag lagar hon ofta kött… (correct: verb is second)
• ❌ Till middag hon lagar ofta kött… (incorrect: subject is second, verb is third)

If you start with the subject, the verb still has to be second:

• ✅ Hon lagar ofta kött med ris eller pasta till middag.

Why is ofta placed after lagar hon? Could I move ofta somewhere else?

Ofta is a satsadverbial (sentence adverb), like “often,” “usually,” “probably.” In Swedish main clauses, these usually go after the subject but before most of the rest of the sentence.

Word order pattern in a main clause:

1. First element (time, place, subject, etc.)
2. Finite verb
3. Subject (if not already first)
4. Satsadverbial (like ofta)
5. Objects and other information

In your example (with time-fronting):

1. Till middag (time)
2. lagar (finite verb)
3. hon (subject)
4. ofta (satsadverbial)
5. kött med ris eller pasta (object)

So:

• ✅ Till middag lagar hon ofta kött… (natural)
• ✅ Hon lagar ofta kött med ris eller pasta till middag.
• ❌ Till middag lagar ofta hon kött… (very unnatural)
• ❌ Till middag hon ofta lagar kött… (breaks the V2 rule)

You can put ofta at the very beginning (Ofta lagar hon…) if you want to strongly emphasize “often,” but the basic neutral place is after the subject.

Why is the verb lagar used here? Why not gör or something like “to cook” directly?

In Swedish, the usual verb for “to cook (food)” is laga (as in laga mat – to cook food).

• laga by itself can mean “repair/fix,” but in the context of food it means “cook.”
• göra mat is not idiomatic; you say laga mat.

Conjugation of laga:

• att laga – to cook / to repair (infinitive)
• jag lagar – I cook
• du lagar – you cook
• hon lagar – she cooks
• vi lagar – we cook
• de lagar – they cook

Same -ar form for all persons in the present tense. In your sentence, lagar is present tense and describes a habitual action (“she often cooks…”).

Why is there no article before middag, kött, ris, or pasta?

There are two main reasons: meals and mass nouns.

1. Meals usually don’t take an article in a general sense
   In Swedish, when talking about meals in general (breakfast/lunch/dinner), you usually omit the article:

   • till frukost – for breakfast
   • till lunch – for lunch
   • till middag – for dinner

   You’d only use the definite form middagen when you mean a very specific dinner:

   • Till middagen igår lagade hon fisk. – For the dinner yesterday she cooked fish.

2. Kött, ris, pasta are mass/uncountable nouns here
   When you mean “some meat,” “some rice,” “some pasta” in a general way, Swedish just uses the bare noun:

   • Hon äter kött. – She eats meat.
   • Vi kokar ris. – We cook rice.
   • De serverar pasta. – They serve pasta.

   If you want to specify a particular dish or portion, you can use definite forms or quantifiers:

   • köttet – the meat
   • riset – the rice
   • pastan – the pasta
   • en portion ris – a portion of rice
   • en pasta (in restaurant menus: “a pasta dish”)

Does kött mean all kinds of meat, including fish?

Normally no. In everyday Swedish:

• kött = meat from land animals (beef, pork, lamb, etc., and often also poultry)
• fisk = fish

So if you say kött, Swedes usually understand “meat (not fish)”.

In some formal contexts (nutrition, EU law), kött might be defined more narrowly (for example, red meat), but in normal speech, kött vs. fisk is the important distinction.

If you want to be explicit that fish is excluded, you can say:

• kött men inte fisk – meat but not fish

Why is it kött med ris and not kött och ris? What’s the difference between med and och here?

Both med and och are possible, but they sound slightly different:

• kött med ris – “meat with rice” → rice is a side dish served together with the meat
• kött och ris – “meat and rice” → sounds more like two separate, equal components

In foods, med is very common for combinations:

• kött med potatis – meat with potatoes
• pasta med sås – pasta with sauce
• kyckling med ris – chicken with rice

So kött med ris eller pasta naturally means “a meat dish, served with rice or pasta as the side.”

What exactly does eller do in ris eller pasta? Would anything change if I added “either” in English?

Eller is the normal word for “or” in Swedish. In ris eller pasta, it works just like “rice or pasta” in English: one or the other.

There is no special change in form when you use eller:

• ris eller pasta – rice or pasta
• kaffe eller te – coffee or tea
• kött eller fisk – meat or fish

If you want to emphasize “either … or …,” you can add antingen:

• Antingen ris eller pasta. – Either rice or pasta.

But ris eller pasta on its own is already completely normal and covers the basic “or” idea.

What tense is lagar, and how would I say the same thing in the past or in the future?

Lagar is present tense and here it expresses a habitual action (what she usually does).

Other tenses:

• Past (preterite):

  • Till middag lagade hon ofta kött med ris eller pasta.
    – For dinner she often cooked meat with rice or pasta.

• Future (using ska):

  • Till middag ska hon laga kött med ris eller pasta.
    – For dinner she will cook / is going to cook meat with rice or pasta.

• Future as scheduled (using present tense):

  • I kväll lagar hon kött med ris eller pasta.
    – Tonight she is cooking meat with rice or pasta.
    Swedish often uses the present tense for planned future actions, especially with a time expression (i kväll, i morgon, etc.).