Learn Hardcore Swedish: Vi pratar om fördelar och nackdelar med att arbeta hemifrån. - We talk about advantages and disadvantages of working from home.

prata om något = talk about something
Without om, prata just means talk in general, with no object: Vi pratar = We’re talking / We’re chatting.

So Vi pratar om fördelar och nackdelar… literally means We talk about advantages and disadvantages… and om is required here to introduce the topic.

What’s the difference between pratar, talar, and diskuterar? Could I say Vi diskuterar fördelar och nackdelar med att arbeta hemifrån?

Yes, you can say that, but there are nuances:

pratar – most neutral and informal: talk, chat.
- Vi pratar om… = We’re talking about…
talar – a bit more formal or careful, often used in public speaking, official contexts, or “speaking a language”.
- Han talar svenska. = He speaks Swedish.
diskuterar – specifically to discuss, often implies a slightly more structured or analytical conversation.
- Vi diskuterar fördelar och nackdelar… = We’re discussing the advantages and disadvantages…

All three are grammatically fine, but Vi pratar om… sounds like a normal, everyday way to say it.

Why are fördelar and nackdelar in the plural and not singular (fördel, nackdel)?

In Swedish, it’s very common to talk about pros and cons as a set of multiple items:

fördelar och nackdelar = advantages and disadvantages (plural)

Saying fördel och nackdel (singular each) would sound like you’re talking about exactly one advantage and one disadvantage, which is usually not what you mean in this kind of general discussion.

You could also make them definite plural if you mean specific, known ones:

fördelarna och nackdelarna med att arbeta hemifrån
= the advantages and the disadvantages of working from home.

Why do we use med in fördelar och nackdelar med att arbeta hemifrån? Could it be av instead?

Here, med is the usual preposition to connect “advantages/disadvantages” with what they relate to.

fördelar med X = advantages of X
nackdelar med X = disadvantages of X

av is not natural here; fördelar av is only used in a few specific expressions (e.g. ha fördel av något – benefit from something).

So the standard pattern is:

fördelar och nackdelar med [noun/verb]
e.g. fördelar och nackdelar med att bo i en stor stad
(advantages and disadvantages of living in a big city).

What is the function of att in att arbeta? Is it like “to” in English?

Yes. In this sentence, att marks the infinitive form of the verb, similar to to in English:

att arbeta = to work
att äta = to eat
att resa = to travel

You almost always need att before an infinitive when it’s used as a noun-like phrase, as here:
fördelar med att arbeta hemifrån = advantages of working from home.

(There are cases where att is dropped, especially after ska, vill, kan, etc., but not in this structure.)

Can I say jobba instead of arbeta? What’s the difference?

You can say:

Vi pratar om fördelar och nackdelar med att jobba hemifrån.

arbeta and jobba both mean to work, but:

arbeta – more formal/neutral, common in writing and official contexts.
jobba – more colloquial, used a lot in everyday speech.

In this sentence, both are perfectly natural; jobba just makes it sound a bit more informal.

Why is it hemifrån and not hemma or hem? All of these seem to mean “home”.

They each carry a different idea:

hemma = at home (location, where you are)
- Jag arbetar hemma. = I work at home.
hem = (to) home (direction, movement towards home)
- Jag går hem. = I’m going home.
hemifrån = from home (origin, where you are coming from or working from)
- Jag arbetar hemifrån. = I work from home.

In arbeta hemifrån, you want the idea of from home → hemifrån is the correct choice.

Why is the word order med att arbeta hemifrån and not something like att arbeta hemifrån med?

In Swedish, the preposition normally comes before its complement and stays attached to it:

med [noun/verb phrase]
→ med att arbeta hemifrån

You can’t move med to the end like English sometimes can with other elements.
So:

✔ fördelar med att arbeta hemifrån
✘ fördelar att arbeta hemifrån med

This mirrors English advantages of working from home, where of also comes before its complement.

Is Vi pratar present simple or present continuous? Does it mean “We talk” or “We are talking”?

Swedish has one present tense form, and Vi pratar can correspond to both:

We talk (habitual, general)
We are talking (right now)

Context decides the nuance.

If you really want to stress the ongoing nature, you can say:

Vi håller på att prata om… = We are in the middle of talking about…

But normally Vi pratar om… is enough for both “We talk about…” and “We’re talking about…”, depending on context.

Could om here mean “if”, since I’ve seen om used like that as well?

No, not in this sentence. om has several meanings, and two common ones are:

about – with verbs like prata, läsa, tänka
- Vi pratar om fördelar och nackdelar… = We’re talking about advantages and disadvantages…
if/whether – in conditional or indirect questions
- Jag undrar om han kommer. = I wonder if he’s coming.

Here, because om comes right after pratar and introduces a topic, it clearly means about, not if.

Could I say Vi pratar om fördelar och nackdelar med att arbeta från hemmet instead of hemifrån?

You could, but it’s not the most natural way to say it.

från hemmet literally = from the home (with the)
hemifrån = the normal everyday way to say from home (no article, more idiomatic)

So while från hemmet isn’t strictly wrong, Swedes overwhelmingly prefer hemifrån in this expression:

✔ att arbeta hemifrån (very natural)
△ att arbeta från hemmet (understandable but feels heavier/less idiomatic)

Is there any special stress or pronunciation I should know for fördelar, nackdelar, and hemifrån?

Yes, a few tips:

fördelar – stress on the first syllable: FÖR‑del‑ar
(The ö is like the vowel in British “bird” but with rounded lips.)
nackdelar – also stress on the first syllable: NACK‑del‑ar
hemifrån – main stress on HEM, and a secondary stress on FRÅN: HEM‑i‑FRÅN
(The å in från sounds like the o in “more” but usually a bit longer.)

Also, Swedish tends to pronounce all the written vowels, so don’t swallow the final -ar endings: fördelar, nackdelar both end with a clear -ar.