Learn Hardcore Swedish: När hennes kompis förlorar blir han inte arg, utan skrattar. - When her friend loses, he does not get angry but laughs.

När is used for:
- Repeated situations: När jag är trött dricker jag kaffe.
- Specific times: När jag kom hem, sov alla.
Om can sometimes be translated as when, but its core meaning is if:
- Om du förlorar, blir du arg? – If you lose, do you get angry?

In this sentence, Om hennes kompis förlorar blir han inte arg would sound more like If her friend loses... (hypothetical), while När hennes kompis förlorar... means this is what typically happens whenever he loses.

Why is it hennes kompis and not hans kompis or sin kompis?

All three are possible in Swedish, but they mean different things:

hennes kompis = her friend
Refers to a female person who is not the subject of the clause. So there is some woman (not han) whose friend this is.
hans kompis = his friend
Refers to some male person (not necessarily the same as han, but often is).
sin kompis is his/her/their own friend, and sin normally refers back to the subject of the same clause.
In this sentence, the subject of the main clause is han, but hennes clearly refers to some other woman, so the reflexive sin would be wrong if we want it to mean “her (another woman’s) friend”.

So hennes kompis correctly says that the friend belongs to some woman (not to han).

Why is it hennes kompis, not hennes kompisen?

In Swedish, possessive pronouns like min, din, hans, hennes, vår, er, deras are normally followed by an indefinite noun form:

min bok – my book (not min boken)
hans bil – his car (not hans bilen)
hennes kompis – her friend (not hennes kompisen)

Even if you are talking about a specific friend, Swedish still uses the indefinite noun form after a possessive. To make it extra definite, you would instead add something like den där:

den där kompisen till henne – that friend of hers

Why is the word order different in När hennes kompis förlorar and blir han inte arg?

There are two clauses with different word‑order rules:

När hennes kompis förlorar – a subordinate clause
Typical order:
conjunction – subject – verb – (other stuff)
→ När – hennes kompis – förlorar
blir han inte arg – a main clause that comes after something placed in front (the entire När... clause).
Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb is in second position:
- First: the whole När... clause (counts as one unit)
- Second: blir (finite verb)
- Then: han inte arg

So:

Subordinate clause: När hennes kompis förlorar (no V2 rule)
Main clause after it: blir han inte arg (V2: verb in second position)

Why is blir used instead of är for angry?

blir literally means becomes / gets, and it expresses a change of state:

blir arg – gets angry / becomes angry
är arg – is angry (describes a current state, not the change)

In this sentence, we are talking about what happens when the friend loses: he does not become angry at that moment. So blir han inte arg = he doesn’t get angry is the natural choice.

If you said är han inte arg here, it would sound more like a static description (then he is not angry), less focused on the reaction to losing.

Why is förlorar in the present tense? Could it also refer to the future or a general habit?

Swedish present tense förlorar covers several English uses:

Habitual/general:
När hennes kompis förlorar blir han inte arg
→ When her friend loses (whenever that happens), he doesn’t get angry.
Future with a condition/time clause:
Swedish often uses present tense where English uses future.
Example: När du förlorar imorgon, blir du arg?
→ When you lose tomorrow, will you get angry?

In this sentence, förlorar most naturally expresses a general, repeated situation: every time the friend loses, this is his reaction.

Why is the pronoun han used? Does kompis have gender?

kompis itself is grammatically an en‑word (common gender), but it does not tell you the natural gender (male/female/non‑binary) of the person.

The pronoun han tells you that this particular friend is male.
If the friend were female, you would write hon.
A gender‑neutral pronoun hen also exists: hen skrattar.

So hennes kompis just means her friend, and blir han inte arg specifies that this friend is a he.

Why is there a comma before utan, and what is the function of utan compared to men?

In Swedish, inte ... utan ... means not ... but rather / but instead .... It corrects or contrasts something that is explicitly negated.

Han blir inte arg, utan skrattar.
→ He doesn’t get angry, but (instead) laughs.

men is a more neutral but, not tied to a specific negation:

Han blir arg, men skrattar ändå. – He gets angry, but laughs anyway.

About the comma:

When utan connects two main clauses (even if the subject is omitted in the second), Swedish usually uses a comma:
- Han blir inte arg, utan skrattar.
  (Second clause is really [han] skrattar.)

If utan only connects verb phrases or single words, you might not need a comma:

Han blir inte arg utan glad. – He doesn’t get angry but happy.

Why is it just utan skrattar and not utan han skrattar?

Swedish often omits repeated subjects when two clauses share the same subject and are joined by a conjunction like och, men, or utan:

Han blir inte arg, utan skrattar.
= Han blir inte arg, utan han skrattar.

The subject han is understood from the previous clause, so you do not need to repeat it. Both versions are grammatically correct; the shorter one is more natural here.

Adding han (→ utan han skrattar) is possible but sounds slightly heavier and more emphatic.

Could you move inte somewhere else, like blir han arg inte?

No. Swedish has relatively fixed positions for sentence adverbs like inte.

For a neutral main clause with a subject:

Han blir inte arg. – subject han, verb blir, then inte.

When something is in front (like När...), the main clause still follows:

När hennes kompis förlorar blir han inte arg.
Order in the main clause: blir – han – inte – arg

Placing inte at the end (blir han arg inte) is ungrammatical in standard Swedish. You can move inte for emphasis in some special patterns, but not like that here.

Are there other natural ways to phrase this sentence in Swedish?

Yes, several variants are possible without changing the meaning much. For example:

När hennes kompis förlorar blir han inte arg utan bara skrattar.
– adds bara (just).
När hennes kompis förlorar, skrattar han istället för att bli arg.
– focuses explicitly on instead of getting angry.
Han blir inte arg när hennes kompis förlorar, utan skrattar.
– moves the När... clause to the end.

All of these keep the same basic structure: När ... (when X happens), [he] doesn’t get angry, but laughs.