Learn Hardcore Swedish: Barnen lär sig att räkna till tio och skriva varje siffra. - The children are learning to count to ten and to write each digit.

Barn lär sig att räkna…
= Children learn to count… (children in general, a general fact)
Barnen lär sig att räkna…
= The children are learning to count… (some particular children you have in mind: maybe in this class, in this story, etc.)

In this sentence, Barnen suggests a specific group of children already known from context (for example, “the children in the preschool” that the speaker previously mentioned).

What exactly does lär sig mean, and why do we need sig?

Lär sig is a reflexive verb meaning “learn”.

lära by itself means “to teach” when it has an object.
lära sig means “to learn” (literally “to teach oneself”).

The reflexive pronoun sig refers back to the subject (Barnen).

Compare:

Jag lär barnen att räkna.
I teach the children to count.
(Subject = I, Object = the children)
Barnen lär sig att räkna.
The children are learning to count.
(Subject = the children, they are teaching themselves)

Other forms of the reflexive pronoun:

jag lär mig – I learn
du lär dig – you learn
han/hon/den/det lär sig – he/she/it learns
vi lär oss – we learn
ni lär er – you (plural) learn
de lär sig – they learn

So lär sig is the natural way to say “learn” when the subject is the one acquiring the skill.

Why is there att only before räkna but not before skriva?

In Swedish, att is the infinitive marker (roughly like “to” in to count).

When two infinitives share the same marker, you normally only write att once, before the first verb:

att räkna till tio och skriva varje siffra
= to count to ten and write each digit

The att in this phrase “belongs” to both räkna and skriva.

You can say:

att räkna till tio och att skriva varje siffra

This is grammatically correct, but it sounds a bit heavier or more formal. In everyday Swedish, repeating att in such a case is usually unnecessary.

Could I leave att out completely and say Barnen lär sig räkna till tio och skriva varje siffra?

Yes, that is also possible and very natural:

Barnen lär sig att räkna till tio…
Barnen lär sig räkna till tio…

Both are acceptable. With lära sig, Swedish allows you to omit att before the infinitive, especially in speech and informal writing.

So you will see both:

lära sig att läsa
lära sig läsa

The version in your sentence (lära sig att räkna) is slightly more explicit and often used in textbooks, but lära sig räkna is at least as common in everyday language.

What does räkna till tio literally mean? Why use till here?

Räkna till tio literally means “count to ten”, just like in English.

räkna – to count
till – to, up to (as a limit)
tio – ten

So räkna till tio = count up to the number ten.

Some useful contrasts:

räkna till tio
count to ten (ending at ten)
räkna från ett till tio
count from one to ten (specifying both start and end)
räkna tio äpplen
count ten apples (count ten of something, no till here)
räkna upp till tio
count up to ten (similar meaning, with a bit more emphasis on the “up” part)

In your sentence, räkna till tio is the most natural way to express the basic skill of counting from 1 up to 10.

Why is it varje siffra (singular), even though they are writing more than one digit?

In Swedish, varje means each / every, and it is always followed by a singular noun:

varje siffra – each digit
varje barn – each child
varje bokstav – each letter

Even though logically we are talking about many digits (0–9), the grammar focuses on them one by one, so the noun stays singular: varje siffra.

If you want to talk about them as a group, you use plural:

alla siffror – all the digits
skriva alla siffror – to write all the digits

So:

skriva varje siffra – write each digit, one by one
skriva alla siffror – write all the digits (the whole set)

Both can be used depending on what nuance you want, but varje siffra fits the idea of practicing each separate symbol.

Why do we use siffra here and not nummer or tal? Aren’t they all “numbers”?

Swedish splits the English idea of “number” into several words:

siffra – a digit, i.e. a single written symbol: 0–9
- siffran 3 – the digit 3
tal – a number as a quantity or mathematical object: 5, 10, 25, 3.14, etc.
- talet 10 – the number 10
nummer – a number used as an identifier or label (like a phone number, bus number, house number, jersey number):
- telefonnummer, bussnummer, tröjnummer

In skriva varje siffra, the point is that the children are learning to write each separate symbol 0–9, not full numbers like 10 or 25, and not IDs like phone numbers. So siffra is exactly the right word here.

Why is the verb in present tense (lär) when the English translation is “are learning”?

Swedish does not have a special -ing form like English (is learning, are learning). The present tense in Swedish covers both:

Barnen lär sig att räkna…
1. The children are learning to count… (right now / around this time)
2. The children learn to count… (more general, e.g. in school every year)

Which sense is meant is decided by context, not by verb form.

If you really want to emphasise an ongoing process “right now”, you can use håller på att:

Barnen håller på att lära sig att räkna till tio.
The children are (in the middle of) learning to count to ten.

But in most cases, simple present lär sig is enough and is the normal choice.

Could we move sig somewhere else, like Barnen lär att räkna sig?

No. The reflexive pronoun sig has a fixed position: it comes right after the verb it belongs to.

Correct:

Barnen lär sig att räkna…
De lär sig skriva…

Incorrect:

✗ Barnen lär att räkna sig
✗ Barnen sig lär att räkna

Also, lära att without sig usually means “teach (someone) to …” and wants an object:

Jag lär barnen att räkna.
I teach the children to count.

If there is no object (no separate learner), and the subject is doing the learning, you normally use the reflexive form lära sig.