Learn Hardcore Swedish: Hennes karriär påverkar hela familjens framtidsplaner. - Her career affects the whole family's future plans.

hennes = her (non‑reflexive; can refer to any previously mentioned “she”)
sin/sitt/sina = her own / his own / their own (reflexive; must refer to the grammatical subject of the clause)

Here, the subject is the whole noun phrase Hennes karriär (“her career”). The word hennes is part of that subject, so there is no separate subject pronoun like hon for sin to refer to.

You could say, for example:

Hon satsar på sin karriär. – She is investing in her (own) career.
(Subject = hon, so sin is possible.)

But in Hennes karriär påverkar hela familjens framtidsplaner, hennes is just a normal possessive pronoun; sin would be ungrammatical here.

Why is there no article before karriär? Why not en karriär?

When you use a possessive pronoun like hennes, you do not use an article in Swedish.

en karriär – a career
karriären – the career
hennes karriär – her career (no article)

So you say:

hennes bil (her car), not en hennes bil or hennes en bil
mitt hus (my house), not ett mitt hus

The possessive already gives the noun a kind of definiteness, so you do not add en/ett or the definite ending -en/-et.

How does the verb påverkar work? Do I need a preposition like in English “affect on something”?

påverka is a transitive verb in Swedish: it takes a direct object and does not use a preposition.

påverka något/någon – to affect/influence something/someone

So:

Hennes karriär påverkar hela familjens framtidsplaner.
= Her career affects the whole family’s future plans.

You should not say påverka på here. That would sound wrong in standard Swedish in this meaning.

What exactly does hela mean in hela familjens? Is it like “all” or “whole”?

hela here means “the whole / the entire”.

familjen – the family
hela familjen – the whole family / the entire family

In the genitive:

familjens – the family’s
hela familjens – the whole family’s / the entire family’s

So hela familjens framtidsplaner = the future plans of the entire family, not just some members. It emphasizes that every member is included.

Why is it familjens and not familjen? How does this -s ending work?

The -s on familjens is the Swedish possessive/genitive ending, similar to English ’s.

familjen – the family
familjens – the family’s / of the family

There is no apostrophe in Swedish: it’s just familjens, not familjen’s.

You use this form in front of another noun to show possession:

familjens bil – the family’s car
lärarens bok – the teacher’s book
Sveriges huvudstad – Sweden’s capital

Why is it familjens framtidsplaner and not something like framtidsplaner för familjen?

Both are possible, but familjens framtidsplaner is:

shorter and more natural in everyday Swedish
structurally closer to English “the family’s future plans”

You can say framtidsplaner för familjen, which literally mirrors English “future plans for the family”, but it sounds a bit more formal or heavy in this context.

So:

familjens framtidsplaner – very natural, neutral
framtidsplaner för familjen – also correct, slightly more “written” in tone

What is framtidsplaner made of? Why is there an s in the middle?

framtidsplaner is a compound noun:

framtid – future
planer – plans (plural of plan)
framtidsplaner – literally future‑plans, i.e. plans for the future

The -s- in the middle is a common linking -s in Swedish compounds. It doesn’t mean anything by itself; it just makes the word sound and flow better:

framtidsutsikter – future prospects (framtid + utsikter)
samhällsproblem – social problem (samhälle + problem)
livsstil – lifestyle (liv + stil)

So you don’t separate it in writing; it’s one word: framtidsplaner.

Why is planer plural? Could you say framtidsplan in singular, and what would that mean?

Here planer is plural because we’re talking about several future plans, which is the normal way to express this idea in both Swedish and English.

en framtidsplan – a future plan
framtidsplaner – future plans

You could say Hennes karriär påverkar hela familjens framtidsplan, but that would usually be understood as one single plan for the future (for example, “our plan to move abroad”). The plural framtidsplaner is more general and natural in this context.

Why is it familjens framtidsplaner and not familjens framtidsplanerna? Don’t we need a definite form?

In Swedish, when a noun has a possessive or genitive in front of it (like familjens), you normally do not add the definite ending -en/-et/-na to the noun.

So you say:

familjens bil (the family’s car), not familjens bilen
min bok (my book), not min boken
hela familjens framtidsplaner (the whole family’s future plans), not framtidsplanerna here

The possessive (familjens, min, hennes) already makes the noun definite, so you avoid “double definiteness” in this structure.

Could I change the sentence to a passive form like Hela familjens framtidsplaner påverkas av hennes karriär? Is that correct, and what changes?

Yes, that sentence is correct:

Hennes karriär påverkar hela familjens framtidsplaner.
– Active: Her career affects the whole family’s future plans.
Hela familjens framtidsplaner påverkas av hennes karriär.
– Passive: The whole family’s future plans are affected by her career.

The meaning is basically the same, but the focus changes:

Active version focuses on her career as the thing doing the affecting.
Passive version focuses on the family’s future plans as the thing being affected.

Both are natural; which you choose depends on what you want to emphasize in the context.