Learn Hardcore Swedish: På kursen träffar hon andra studenter som också söker sommarjobb. - On the course she meets other students who are also looking for a summer job.

Literally, på kursen means “on the course”, but in English we normally say “on the course / in the course / in class” depending on context.

In Swedish:

på is used for many activities, events, and organized things:
- på kursen – on the course
- på jobbet – at work
- på universitetet – at the university
- på lektionen – in class
i is more often used for being inside something physically or for more abstract “within”-meanings:
- i rummet – in the room
- i bilen – in the car
- i boken – in the book

A Swedish speaker simply says på kursen by idiom, just like English says in class and at work instead of literally following one rule. So i kursen would sound wrong in this context.

Why does the verb come right after på kursen? Why not ”På kursen hon träffar …”?

Swedish has a very strong verb-second rule (V2) in main clauses:

The finite verb (here: träffar) almost always comes in second position, no matter what comes first.

In your sentence:

First position: På kursen (an adverbial phrase)
Second position: träffar (the verb)
Then comes the subject: hon

So we get:

På kursen träffar hon …

If the subject comes first, the order looks more “English-like”:

Hon träffar andra studenter på kursen. – She meets other students on the course.

But when you move something else (like på kursen) to the front, the verb must still be second, so you cannot say:

❌ På kursen hon träffar andra studenter … (ungrammatical in standard Swedish)

The English translation talks about the future. Why is Swedish using present tense träffar instead of a future tense?

Swedish very often uses the present tense to talk about planned or scheduled future events, especially when the context is clear:

På kursen träffar hon andra studenter …
→ On the course (she will take / is taking), she meets other students …
(understood as a future situation if the course hasn’t started yet)

Other examples:

Imorgon åker jag till Stockholm. – Tomorrow I’m going to Stockholm.
Nästa vecka börjar kursen. – The course starts next week.

You can use a more explicit future form too:

På kursen kommer hon att träffa andra studenter …
På kursen ska hon träffa andra studenter …

But the simple present träffar is very natural for an arranged or typical future situation, much like English “I’m meeting” or “I start” when talking about scheduled plans.

What is the nuance of träffar here? Is it more like “meets”, “runs into”, or “hangs out with”?

The verb träffa basically means “to meet” (to come into contact with someone in person). In this sentence it suggests:

She meets other students (probably in a somewhat planned or expected way, because they are on the same course).

Some quick contrasts:

träffa – to meet (general, can be planned or accidental)
- Jag ska träffa min vän. – I’m going to meet my friend.
möta – to encounter, to meet (often more “to run into” or to face)
- Jag mötte henne på gatan. – I met/ran into her in the street.
träffas – to meet each other (reciprocal)
- Vi träffas imorgon. – We’ll meet (each other) tomorrow.

In your sentence, träffar is just the normal verb for “meets (gets to know / comes into contact with)” in that course context.

Why is it andra studenter and not something like de andra studenterna?

Both are grammatically correct, but they mean slightly different things.

andra studenter = other students (unspecified group)
- She meets some additional students on the course, not herself, not necessarily all the rest.
de andra studenterna = the other students (more definite)
- Suggests all the remaining students in some known group (“the rest of the students”).

In your sentence:

På kursen träffar hon andra studenter …
→ natural, general: she meets other students (some others on the course).

If you said:

På kursen träffar hon de andra studenterna …
→ more like: she meets the other students (all the others, as a known set).

So de = “the” (plural), -na at the end = definite plural ending, turning studenter into studenterna (“the students”).

Does andra mean “second” or “other” here?

In Swedish, andra can mean both “second” and “other”, depending on context:

andra våningen – the second floor
andra plats – second place
andra studenter – other students

In your sentence it clearly means “other”, because we’re not talking about an order (first, second, third), but about different / additional people apart from “her”.

Context usually makes it obvious which meaning is intended.

What exactly does som mean here? Is it “who” or “that”? Can I use anything else?

Here, som is a relative pronoun introducing a relative clause:

… andra studenter som också söker sommarjobb.
… other students who are also looking for a summer job.

In English we could say “who” or “that”. In Swedish, som covers both meanings:

persons: mannen som bor där – the man who/that lives there
things: boken som jag läser – the book (that) I’m reading

You usually don’t replace som with something else here. Forms like vilka or vilken can introduce relative clauses in more formal styles, but som is by far the most common and natural in everyday Swedish:

studenter som också söker sommarjobb – normal
studenter vilka också söker sommarjobb – very formal/rare in speech

What does som refer to exactly? Does it agree in gender or number like English “who/which”?

In … andra studenter som också söker sommarjobb, the word som refers back to andra studenter.

Important points:

som itself does not change form:
- singular/plural: som
- common/neuter gender: som
- people/things: som

Examples:

mannen som bor där – the man who lives there
kvinnan som bor där – the woman who lives there
barnet som bor där – the child that lives there
studenterna som bor där – the students who live there

The verb inside the clause (söker) stays in plural because the subject is studenter (plural), but som itself does not show that; it’s invariant.

Why is också placed before söker? Could I say ”som söker också sommarjobb”?

The standard and most natural position for också here is before the main verb of the clause:

… som också söker sommarjobb.

General pattern in Swedish:

Subject – också – verb
- Hon också söker – (not normal)
- Hon också vill – (not normal)
- Hon också vill → Hon vill också or Hon också vill only with special emphasis.

More typical:

Hon också söker sommarjobb. – sounds odd
Hon söker också sommarjobb. – natural

In this relative clause:

Subject: (understood) de / andra studenter
Verb: söker
So: som också söker sommarjobb is the normal order.

You could say som söker sommarjobb också but then också tends to sound more loosely attached, like “they’re looking for summer jobs too (among other things)”. The neutral, focused “they also are looking for summer jobs” is som också söker sommarjobb.

What exactly does söker mean here? Is it “look for a job” or “apply for a job”? How is it different from letar efter?

The verb söka has a couple of common meanings relevant here:

to look for / search for
- söka jobb – look for a job
- söka information – look for information
to apply (for something)
(especially in the context of positions, programs, grants)
- söka jobb – apply for a job
- söka till universitetet – apply to the university
- söka ett stipendium – apply for a scholarship

Context decides which nuance is stronger. In söker sommarjobb, it very naturally means something like “are job-hunting for summer work / applying for summer jobs.”

Compare with leta efter:

leta efter = to search for something in a more concrete, physical way
- Jag letar efter mina nycklar. – I’m looking for my keys.
- Jag letar efter ett nytt jobb. – I’m looking for a new job (more everyday/colloquial).

So:

söker sommarjobb – often suggests actively applying for positions / job-hunting.
letar efter sommarjobb – clearly “looking for” summer work, more like English “looking for a job”.

Both could be used, but söker sommarjobb is very standard phrasing in this context.

Why is there no article before sommarjobb? Why not ”ett sommarjobb”?

Swedish often omits the indefinite article with jobb / arbete when talking in a general or non-specific sense:

Han söker jobb. – He’s looking for work / a job.
Hon har jobb. – She has a job.
De söker sommarjobb. – They’re looking for summer work / summer jobs.

If you say:

söker ett sommarjobb – you’re emphasizing one specific job:
- e.g. a single summer job position.

In your sentence, sommarjobb is more like “summer work” in general, not one clearly specified job:

… som också söker sommarjobb. – who are also looking for (some kind of) summer job(s) / summer work.

So the zero-article form is very natural here.

Why is sommarjobb one word? Can you explain the compound, and is it singular or plural?

Swedish loves compound nouns: you often join two nouns into one word.

sommar – summer
jobb – job, work

Together:

sommarjobb – a summer job / summer work

About form:

In your sentence, sommarjobb is singular, indefinite in form, but often used in a generic sense (like English “summer work” / “summer jobs”).
The plural would also be sommarjobb (with no change) for most speakers:
- ett sommarjobb – flera sommarjobb

Context decides whether you understand it as “a summer job” or “summer jobs” in English.

Why is it studenter in the plural and not something like studentar? How is the plural of student formed?

Student is a common-gender noun (an en-word):

singular indefinite: en student
singular definite: studenten
plural indefinite: studenter
plural definite: studenterna

It belongs to a common pattern where -ent becomes -enter in the plural:

president – presidenter
patient – patienter (slightly different vowel, same idea)
student – studenter

So andra studenter is simply “other students”, with -er as the plural ending plus a small vowel change e → e (spelling stays “e” but stress and pronunciation adjust).

Could I say ”På kursen möter hon andra studenter …” instead of ”träffar”? Would that mean the same thing?

You can say:

På kursen möter hon andra studenter som också söker sommarjobb.

It’s grammatically fine, but the nuance is a bit different:

träffa – to meet in a more neutral, often social or intentional way; very common in this kind of context.
möta – to meet/encounter, often more like “to come across” or “to run into”, or in more formal/figurative uses (e.g. “meet challenges”).

In the context of a course and getting to know people, träffar feels more natural and idiomatic:

På kursen träffar hon andra studenter …
→ suggests she meets / gets to know them.

Möter would be more neutral “encounters” and might sound slightly less social/relational here, though it’s not wrong.