Learn Hardcore Swedish: Du behöver inte oroa dig, hon sitter bara på café och läser. - You do not need to worry; she is just sitting at a café and reading.

In Swedish, att oroa sig means to worry (literally to worry oneself), and it’s a reflexive verb. That means it normally needs a reflexive pronoun that matches the subject:

jag oroar mig – I worry
du oroar dig – you worry
han/hon oroar sig – he/she worries

In the infinitive construction after behöver, you still keep the reflexive pronoun:

du behöver inte oroa dig – you don’t need to worry

If you said only du behöver inte oroa, it would sound incomplete and wrong, because oroa almost always takes sig/dig/mig when it means to worry (emotionally).

Why is the negation in behöver inte oroa dig placed after behöver and not at the end like behöver oroa dig inte?

Swedish normally puts inte (not) right after the finite verb in main clauses. Here, the finite verb is behöver:

Du behöver inte oroa dig.

The rest (oroa dig) is an infinitive phrase that comes after the negation.

Putting inte at the very end (du behöver oroa dig inte) is ungrammatical in standard Swedish. End-position inte in this kind of sentence simply isn’t used.

Could you say du behöver inte att oroa dig like in English “you don’t need to worry”?

No. In Swedish, you don’t use att between behöva and the infinitive:

Correct: Du behöver inte oroa dig.
Incorrect: ✗ Du behöver inte att oroa dig.

With behöva, you go straight from behöver to the infinitive verb form (here oroa) without att.

What is the difference between du behöver inte oroa dig and oroa dig inte? They both seem to mean “don’t worry”.

They’re close in meaning but not identical:

Du behöver inte oroa dig = You don’t need to worry.
- Focus: there is no necessity for you to worry. It’s more reassuring, softer.
Oroa dig inte = Don’t worry.
- This is an imperative (a direct command). It can be friendly, but grammatically it is telling someone not to do something.

In your sentence, the speaker is being reassuring about necessity, so du behöver inte oroa dig fits better.

Why is it hon sitter bara på café and not just hon är på café?

Swedish often uses posture verbs like sitta (sit), stå (stand), ligga (lie) to describe ongoing activities.

Hon sitter bara på café och läser.
- Literally: She just sits at a café and reads.
- Idiomatically: She’s just (sitting) at a café reading.

Using sitter emphasizes her physical position and feels natural when someone is sitting doing something (reading, working on a laptop, etc.).

You can say:

Hon är på café och läser.

That’s also okay, but sitter adds a slightly more vivid picture of what she’s doing.

Why is it på café and not i ett café or på ett café?

Several variants are possible, but they’re not identical in feeling:

på café – very common, means at a café in a general, non-specific way.
på ett café – at a café but a bit more specific (a particular but not previously known café).
på caféet – at the café (a specific café already known in the context).

i ett café (in a café) is much less natural for talking about being there as a customer. Swedish typically uses på with public places like:

på café, på restaurang, på bio, på gymmet

So hon sitter bara på café is the standard idiomatic form.

What does bara do here, and why is it placed before på café?

Bara means “just / only”.

Hon sitter bara på café och läser.
= She’s just sitting at a café and reading.

It minimizes or trivializes the activity, reassuring the listener that nothing serious is happening.

Position: bara is placed before the part it modifies:

Hon bara sitter på café och läser. – more focus on just sitting (maybe she does nothing else).
Hon sitter bara på café och läser. – more like she’s just at a café reading, that’s all.

Both are grammatical, but your version is very natural and neutral.

How does Swedish express the “-ing” form (continuous) in hon sitter … och läser? Why not something like “is reading”?

Swedish doesn’t have a separate -ing tense like English. Instead it uses:

Simple present:
- Hon läser. – She reads / she is reading.
Or a posture verb + och + verb to highlight ongoing activity:
- Hon sitter och läser. – She is sitting and reading.

So hon sitter bara på café och läser naturally conveys an ongoing action, without needing a special continuous tense.

Could you leave out the pronoun and say Sitter bara på café och läser like in some informal English (“Just sitting in a café reading”)?

In standard Swedish, you normally must include the subject pronoun:

Correct: Hon sitter bara på café och läser.
Incorrect in normal Swedish: ✗ Sitter bara på café och läser.

Swedish is not a “subject-dropping” language like Spanish or Italian. You can sometimes see subject-less fragments in headlines, notes, or very telegraphic styles, but in normal speech and writing you should keep hon.

Why is it läser by itself and not läser en bok or läser något?

In Swedish, läsa (to read) can be used without an object when the object is obvious or not important:

Hon sitter på café och läser.
= She’s at a café reading (something).

If you want to be more specific, you can add an object:

Hon sitter på café och läser en bok. – She’s reading a book.
Hon sitter på café och läser tidningen. – She’s reading the newspaper.

But it’s very natural to omit the object when it’s not essential to the message.

Are café and kafé the same word? Why is it spelled with c here?

Yes, café and kafé refer to the same thing.

café – the traditional French-based spelling, very common on signs and in everyday use.
kafé – a fully Swedish spelling. You may see it in more formal texts or where Swedish spelling rules are preferred.

Both are correct; in this sentence, café is just the more common everyday spelling.

Could we say hon är bara på café och läser instead of hon sitter bara på café och läser?

Yes, hon är bara på café och läser is grammatically correct and understandable.

Differences in nuance:

Hon sitter bara på café och läser.
- Emphasizes that she is sitting there doing this; gives a clearer picture of her posture and activity.
Hon är bara på café och läser.
- More general: she is at a café reading; doesn’t highlight that she’s sitting.

In most café situations, people are sitting, so sitter feels very natural and slightly more vivid.