Learn Hardcore Swedish: Familjen går vanligtvis och lägger sig tidigt när de ska jobba nästa dag. - The family usually goes to bed early when they have to work the next day.

In Swedish, gå och + verb is a very common construction meaning roughly “go and do X” or “go to do X”. It often describes the physical movement plus the action, but in many everyday phrases it’s just idiomatic and doesn’t focus much on the “going” part.

Familjen går och lägger sig ≈ “The family goes and lies down / goes to bed.”
You can say just Familjen lägger sig tidigt. That’s correct and slightly more neutral or matter-of-fact.

Using går ... och lägger sig can sound a bit more colloquial and vivid, like you picture the family getting up and heading off to bed.

Why is it lägger sig and not just lägger?

Lägger sig is reflexive: it literally means “lays itself (down)” and is the normal way to say to go to bed / to lie down (for a person).

Jag lägger boken på bordet. – I put the book on the table. (non‑reflexive: subject acts on something else)
Jag lägger mig. – I lie down / I go to bed. (reflexive: subject acts on themself)

So in Familjen ... lägger sig, the family members are lying themselves down, not putting something else down.

Why is the reflexive pronoun sig used, and not something like dem?

Swedish has a special reflexive pronoun for 3rd person: sig. It’s used for he, she, it, they when the action goes back to the subject.

han lägger sig – he lies down
hon lägger sig – she lies down
de lägger sig – they lie down
familjen lägger sig – the family lies down

Dem is an object pronoun (“them”) used when the object is not the same as the subject:

Familjen lägger dem i sängen. – The family puts them in the bed. (e.g. putting children in bed, not themselves)

In lägger sig, the family are doing the action to themselves, so sig is required.

The subject is Familjen (singular), so why does the sentence later use de (“they”)?

Grammatically, familjen is singular in Swedish, but it refers to a group of people. It’s very common in Swedish to then refer to that group with de (“they”) in the next clause, focusing on the members of the family.

So:

Familjen går vanligtvis och lägger sig tidigt när de ska jobba nästa dag.

Here, de refers to the family members, not the abstract unit “the family” as one object.

You could also say:

Familjen går vanligtvis och lägger sig tidigt när familjen ska jobba nästa dag.

That’s grammatically fine but sounds a bit repetitive and less natural than using de.

Why is the adverb vanligtvis (“usually”) placed after går?

In Swedish main clauses, the finite verb normally comes in second position (the “V2 rule”). Adverbs like vanligtvis often come right after that verb:

Familjen (1st element)
går (finite verb in 2nd position)
vanligtvis (adverb)
och lägger sig tidigt (rest of the clause)

Other examples:

Jag äter vanligtvis frukost klockan åtta.
Hon kommer ofta sent.

So går vanligtvis is the standard word order: verb first, adverb second.

Could we use brukar instead of vanligtvis? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say:

Familjen brukar gå och lägga sig tidigt när de ska jobba nästa dag.

Both vanligtvis and brukar mean “usually”, but they work a bit differently:

vanligtvis is an adverb (“usually”).
brukar is a verb (almost like “tends to / is in the habit of”).

Nuance:

går vanligtvis och lägger sig = describes how they usually perform that action.
brukar gå och lägga sig = focuses more on it being a habit or regular pattern.

In practice, both are natural here; brukar is very common for talking about regular habits.

Why is tidigt used, not tidiga?

Tidigt is the adverb form of tidig (“early”). When you say someone does something early, you use the adverb:

De går och lägger sig tidigt. – They go to bed early.

Tidiga is an adjective form (“early” describing a noun), for example:

tidiga morgnar – early mornings
en tidig kväll – an early evening

So:

Action (go to bed) + “how/when?” → adverb → tidigt
Noun (evening, morning) + “what kind of?” → adjective → tidig / tidiga

Why is it ska jobba and not something like kommer att jobba for the future?

Swedish often uses the present tense with a modal verb to talk about the future. Ska is very common for future plans or scheduled things:

De ska jobba nästa dag. – They will work / are going to work the next day.

Ska vs kommer att:

ska jobba – often implies intention, plan, arrangement (they’re scheduled to work).
kommer att jobba – more neutral prediction (“it will happen”), not wrong here but sounds more like a factual forecast.

In everyday speech about your own or known plans, ska is more frequent than kommer att.

Why is jobba used instead of arbeta?

Both jobba and arbeta mean “to work”, but:

jobba is more informal and very common in speech.
arbeta is more formal and common in writing or official contexts.

In a neutral spoken or everyday written context, jobba fits perfectly:

De ska jobba nästa dag. – They have work the next day / They will be working the next day.

You could say:

De ska arbeta nästa dag.

That sounds a bit more formal or bookish, but still correct.

Why is it när de ska jobba nästa dag and not när de nästa dag ska jobba?

Both word orders are grammatically possible, but they differ in naturalness and emphasis.

Default, natural order:

när de ska jobba nästa dag
- verb ska
- infinitive jobba
- time expression nästa dag at the end

Alternative:

när de nästa dag ska jobba – possible but sounds more marked, with extra emphasis on “the next day”.

In Swedish subordinate clauses, time expressions like nästa dag very often come towards the end of the clause, which is why ... ska jobba nästa dag feels most natural.

Why is nästa dag indefinite (no article), and not nästa dagen?

In Swedish, nästa (“next”) and förra (“last”) are normally used with indefinite nouns, without an article or definite ending:

nästa dag – the next day
förra veckan – last week
nästa år – next year

Using the definite form (nästa dagen) is not standard. So nästa dag is the correct and idiomatic form.

Could we say just Familjen lägger sig tidigt när de ska jobba nästa dag without går? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, that sentence is perfectly correct:

Familjen lägger sig tidigt när de ska jobba nästa dag.

The meaning is almost the same: “The family goes to bed early when they have work the next day.”

Nuance:

går och lägger sig – slightly more colloquial and vivid, can suggest the whole process of getting up and going off to bed.
lägger sig – more neutral and direct: they go to bed.

Both are natural; which one you choose is mostly a matter of style.

Why is the present tense used in går and ska jobba, even though this is about repeated future situations?

Swedish uses the present tense very broadly:

For habitual actions (things that happen regularly):
- Familjen går vanligtvis och lägger sig tidigt – The family usually goes to bed early.
In combination with ska to talk about the future:
- när de ska jobba nästa dag – when they’re going to work the next day.

So this sentence is describing a general habit: whenever (in general) they have work the next day, they usually go to bed early. Swedish doesn’t need a special “future tense” form here; present + ska expresses that idea efficiently.