Learn Hardcore Swedish: För att minska risken badar barnen bara när en vuxen är med. - To reduce the risk, the children swim only when an adult is with them.

för att + infinitive (here: minska) is the normal way to express purpose:
- Jag tränar för att bli stark. = “I work out to become strong.”
In English we often drop “in order” and just say “to”, but in Swedish you keep för att in this kind of purpose expression.
You can say just att with some verbs (e.g. Jag gillar att bada.), but when you mean purpose, you almost always use för att.

Why is the verb before the subject in badar barnen and not barnen badar?

Swedish is a V2 language: in main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in second position, regardless of what comes first.

The sentence has this structure:

Fronted adverbial: För att minska risken
Finite verb: badar
Subject: barnen
Other elements: bara när en vuxen är med

So:

Barnen badar bara… (“The children only swim…”) – subject first, verb second.
För att minska risken badar barnen bara… – now the adverbial (För att minska risken) is first, so the verb (badar) must still be second, and the subject (barnen) comes after it.

If you said För att minska risken barnen badar bara…, that would be ungrammatical word order in Swedish.

Why is it risken (definite) and not just risk or en risk?

Risken is the definite singular form = “the risk.”

risk – “risk” (base form)
en risk – “a risk”
risken – “the risk”

Swedish often uses the definite form when English uses an abstract, generic noun:

Minska risken = “reduce the risk (of something we’re talking about here)”
English can say “reduce risk” or “reduce the risk,” but Swedish much more strongly prefers the definite form in this context.

The idea is “the specific risk we’re concerned with here” (the risk of something bad happening when children swim). Using risken makes it sound more natural and specific in Swedish.

Why is barnen used without an article? Shouldn’t it be something like de barnen?

In Swedish, definiteness is normally built into the noun itself, not with a separate article like “the.”

ett barn – “a child”
barnet – “the child”
barn – “children”
barnen – “the children”

So barnen already means “the children” by itself. You don’t add de in front unless you’re doing something special (like contrast: just de barnen, inte de andra – “those children, not the others”). In this sentence:

badar barnen = “the children swim / are swimming”

is correct and complete; no extra article is needed.

What nuance does är med have in när en vuxen är med? Why not just say är där?

Är med literally means “is with (them)”, and it implies being present and accompanying the children.

när en vuxen är med = “when an adult is with them / present with them”
It strongly suggests active presence / supervision, not just physical location.

If you said:

när en vuxen är där = “when an adult is there”

this sounds more like “when an adult is there (in that place),” but not necessarily with the children or supervising them. Är med is the natural phrase for “is along / is there with them” in Swedish.

Why is it en vuxen and not en vuxen person or a plural like vuxna?

En vuxen is a normal, very common way to say “an adult” in Swedish:

en vuxen – “an adult”
vuxna – “adults” (plural)
en vuxen person – “an adult person” (more formal / explicit)

In this sentence, the focus is on the condition:

The children only swim when at least one adult is present.
So en vuxen = “an adult (one adult)” is exactly what you want.

You could say när en vuxen person är med, but it’s longer and doesn’t add much new meaning in everyday speech.

Could you say För att minska risken badar bara barnen när en vuxen är med? What’s the difference in meaning?

The original:

badar barnen bara när en vuxen är med

Here, bara is right before när en vuxen är med, so it limits the time/condition:

“The children swim only when an adult is with them.”

If you move bara in front of barnen:

För att minska risken badar bara barnen när en vuxen är med.

Now bara modifies barnen (the subject):

“To reduce the risk, only the children swim when an adult is present.”
(This suggests maybe others don’t swim, or that the children are the only ones who swim under that condition.)

That is a different meaning. In Swedish, the position of bara is important; it usually limits the word or phrase that comes immediately after it.

Why is the present tense badar used, even though this sounds like a rule or habit?

Swedish often uses the present tense for:

habits / routines
general truths
rules

So:

Barnen badar bara när… = “The children only swim when…”
(meaning: this is how things are done; it’s the rule or regular practice)

Compare:

Jag jobbar måndag till fredag. – “I work Monday to Friday.”
Hon äter aldrig kött. – “She never eats meat.”

English sometimes uses present simple in the same way, so this matches quite well.

Why is it när en vuxen är med and not om en vuxen är med?

Both när and om can be translated as “when” or “if” in English, but they are used differently:

när – mostly temporal “when” (refers to time / occasions)
om – mostly conditional “if”

In a habitual, rule-like sentence like this, Swedish uses när:

Barnen badar bara när en vuxen är med.
= “The children only swim on those occasions when an adult is present.”

If you used om:

Barnen badar bara om en vuxen är med.

it would sound more like a condition (“only if an adult is with them”), and it is actually not wrong; it’s just a bit more conditional/logical and a bit less about specific occasions in time. När is slightly more natural here, but om is possible.

Can you add så after för att minska risken, like För att minska risken, så badar barnen bara…?

You can hear sentences like:

För att minska risken, så badar barnen bara när en vuxen är med.

in spoken, informal Swedish. However, many grammar guides consider this extra så (called “pleonastic så”) to be unnecessary or less formal.

Standard written Swedish prefers:

För att minska risken badar barnen bara när en vuxen är med.

without så, because the verb already comes in second place (V2), and så is not needed to introduce the main clause.