Learn Hardcore Swedish: Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer.

In Swedish, close family members are very often used without any article or possessive pronoun, especially when it’s obvious whose family member we mean.

So:

Jag saknar morfar. = I miss (my) grandpa.
Mamma kommer snart. = (My) mom is coming soon.
Pappa jobbar. = (My) dad is working.

You can say min morfar (“my grandfather on my mother’s side”), and it’s grammatically correct. But in a context where you’re clearly talking about your own grandfather, morfar without min sounds very natural and slightly more intimate/colloquial.

Use min morfar if:

You need to be explicit that it’s yours (e.g. comparing several people’s grandparents).
You introduce him in a more neutral/descriptive way:
Min morfar heter Sven. – My grandfather’s name is Sven.

What exactly does morfar mean? How is it different from farfar?

Swedish has different words for grandparents depending on whether they’re on the mother’s or father’s side:

morfar = mother’s father (maternal grandfather)
- mor = mother
- far = father
  → literally “mother-father”
farfar = father’s father (paternal grandfather)
- far = father
  → literally “father-father”

Similarly for grandmothers:

mormor = mother’s mother (maternal grandmother)
farmor = father’s mother (paternal grandmother)

So in Jag saknar morfar, you are specifically saying “I miss my maternal grandfather.”

What does saknar mean? Is it the same as English “miss”?

Sakna is very close to English “to miss” in the emotional sense:

Jag saknar dig. – I miss you.
Jag saknar morfar. – I miss Grandpa.

It can also mean “to lack” / “to be missing” in a more neutral way:

Det saknas en sida i boken. – A page is missing from the book.
Vi saknar pengar. – We lack money / We don’t have enough money.

In your sentence, saknar is straightforwardly emotional: “I miss Grandpa.”

Why is it “när han inte kommer” and not “när han kommer inte”?

This is about word order in subordinate clauses.

när is a subordinating conjunction (“when”).
In Swedish subordinate clauses, the normal order is: [conjunction] + [subject] + [sentence adverb] + [verb]

So:

när han inte kommer
= when he not comes
= when he doesn’t come

Putting inte after the verb (när han kommer inte) is incorrect in a subordinate clause.

Compare with a main clause, where the pattern is:

Subject + finite verb + sentence adverb + …
Han kommer inte. – He does not come.

So:

Main clause: Han kommer inte.
Subordinate: … när han inte kommer.

Does “när han inte kommer” mean “when he doesn’t come” or “if he doesn’t come”?

när normally means “when” (at the time that / every time that), not “if”.

So:

Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer.
→ I miss Grandpa when he doesn’t come (on those occasions).

If you want to express a more hypothetical “if he doesn’t come”, you would usually use om:

Jag blir ledsen om han inte kommer.
= I get sad if he doesn’t come.

There is some overlap in casual speech, but när = when, om = if is the safe rule here.

Why is kommer in the present tense? In English we might say “when he doesn’t come” or “when he doesn’t show up”; is this about the future, the present, or a habit?

Swedish present tense is very flexible. It can cover:

General / habitual actions
- Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer.
  → I miss Grandpa when he doesn’t come (whenever that happens).
Future events (especially with words like i morgon, snart)
- Han kommer i morgon. – He is coming / will come tomorrow.

In this sentence, the present tense describes a repeated or general situation: every time he fails to come, you miss him. English also uses present (“when he doesn’t come”), so the match is pretty close.

Could I say “Jag saknar min morfar när han inte kommer”? Is that wrong?

It’s not wrong; it’s grammatically correct.

The difference is mostly about style and nuance:

Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer.
→ Very natural, everyday Swedish, assumes it’s your own grandpa.
Jag saknar min morfar när han inte kommer.
→ A bit more explicit; useful if:
- Several people’s grandfathers are being discussed.
- You want to emphasize “my grandfather in particular”.

In many contexts, a native speaker would drop min and just say morfar, especially when it’s clear from the context that you’re talking about your own grandfather.

Why do we use han (“he”) for morfar instead of den or det?

In Swedish, personal pronouns are used for people:

han = he
hon = she
hen = gender‑neutral singular (used by some speakers)

Den / det are used mainly for things, animals, and abstract nouns, matching grammatical gender:

boken → den (common gender)
huset → det (neuter)

Since morfar is a male person, you naturally refer back to him with han:

Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer.
= I miss Grandpa when he doesn’t come.

Could you explain the structure of the whole sentence? Where is the main clause and where is the subordinate clause?

The sentence splits into:

Main clause:
- Jag saknar morfar
- Subject: Jag (I)
- Verb: saknar (miss)
- Object: morfar (Grandpa)
Subordinate clause introduced by när:
- när han inte kommer
- Conjunction: när (when)
- Subject: han (he)
- Sentence adverb: inte (not)
- Verb: kommer (comes)

So in English-like structure:

[I miss Grandpa] [when he doesn’t come].

Why is it just kommer and not kommer hit or kommer på besök? Does kommer by itself sound incomplete?

No, kommer by itself is very normal if the context is clear.

Kommer = “comes / is coming / shows up / turns up”.

You often omit extra information like “here” (hit) or “for a visit” (på besök) if it’s obvious you mean “comes here to visit me / us”.

If you want to be more explicit, you can say:

Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer hit.
– I miss Grandpa when he doesn’t come here.
Jag saknar morfar när han inte kommer på besök.
– I miss Grandpa when he doesn’t come (to visit).

But in everyday conversation, kommer alone is perfectly natural: people will understand “comes to see us / comes over” from context.

Could I move när han inte kommer to the beginning of the sentence? If so, does the word order change?

Yes, you can put the subordinate clause first:

När han inte kommer, saknar jag morfar.

Word order rules:

Inside the subordinate clause, nothing changes:
- still när han inte kommer (conjunction + subject + inte
  - verb)
In the main clause, Swedish keeps the V2 rule:
- The finite verb must be in position 2.
- Here, the first position is the whole subordinate clause.
- The second position must be the verb saknar.

So:

När han inte kommer, saknar jag morfar. ✅
(not ”När han inte kommer, jag saknar morfar” ❌)

Both orders are correct; the difference is just emphasis and flow.