Learn Hardcore Swedish: I köket har vi en gammal spis, en liten ugn och bara en kastrull. - In the kitchen we have an old stove, a small oven and only one pot.

Swedish has a word order rule called V2 (verb-second).
In a main clause, the finite verb (here har) must come in second position, no matter what comes first.

Neutral order: Vi har en gammal spis…
– Subject (vi) is first, verb (har) is second.
When you move an adverbial (like I köket = In the kitchen) to the front, the verb still has to be second:
- I köket har vi en gammal spis…

So the structure is:

First position: I köket (place)
Second position: har (verb)
Then the subject: vi

You can say Vi har en gammal spis, en liten ugn och bara en kastrull i köket, but that puts the focus more on what you have, and only at the end you add where.
I köket har vi… puts stronger emphasis on the location in the kitchen.

Why is it i köket and not i kök or i ett kök?

The noun kök (kitchen) is a neuter noun:

Indefinite: ett kök – a kitchen
Definite: köket – the kitchen

In this sentence, we are talking about a specific kitchen (our own), so Swedish uses the definite form:

i köket = in the kitchen

Some contrasts:

i ett kök – in a kitchen, any kitchen, not specific
i kök – this is not normally used to mean in the kitchen; it would sound wrong in this context.

So i köket combines the preposition i (in) and the definite noun form köket (the kitchen).

Why is it i köket and not på köket? When do you use i vs på?

Both i and på can translate to in or on, but their usage is quite fixed with certain places.

i is used for being inside or within something:
- i köket – in the kitchen
- i huset – in the house
- i rummet – in the room
på is used for surfaces or certain places by convention:
- på bordet – on the table
- på golvet – on the floor
- på jobbet – at work
- på bio – at the cinema

For kök, the standard expression for location is i köket (in the kitchen).
På köket would sound wrong in standard Swedish in this sense.

What exactly does spis mean? Is it the same as ugn?

No, spis and ugn are different, even though they are related.

spis = the stove / cooker
– typically the whole unit you cook on: the hob/cooktop (with the plates or burners), and often including a built‑in oven.
ugn = the oven itself
– the compartment you bake/roast in.

In everyday speech:

spis is about the part where pots and pans go (the top of the cooker) and can mean the whole appliance.
ugn is specifically the oven (where you put trays, baking dishes, etc.).

So the sentence is saying they have:

an old stove (en gammal spis),
a small oven (en liten ugn),
and only one saucepan/pot (bara en kastrull).

Why do we say en gammal spis, en liten ugn and en kastrull? When do you use en vs ett?

Swedish has two grammatical genders for nouns:

Common gender (also called en-words)
Neuter gender (also called ett-words)

The indefinite article matches the gender:

en for common gender
ett for neuter

In this sentence:

spis – common gender → en spis
ugn – common gender → en ugn
kastrull – common gender → en kastrull

So we get:

en gammal spis
en liten ugn
bara en kastrull

Compare with kök, which is neuter:

ett kök – a kitchen
köket – the kitchen

There is no simple rule to guess en vs ett for a new noun, so learners usually have to memorize the gender with each word.

Why are the adjectives gammal and liten in that form? How do adjectives agree with nouns?

Swedish adjectives must agree with the noun in:

gender (en/ett),
number (singular/plural),
and definiteness (indefinite/definite).

Here, all three nouns are:

singular
indefinite
common gender (en‑words)

So we use the base form of the adjectives:

en gammal spis – an old stove
en liten ugn – a small oven

Some patterns with the same adjectives:

Neuter singular:
- ett gammalt hus – an old house
- ett litet hus – a small house
Plural (both genders):
- gamla hus – old houses
- små hus – small houses (note that liten has irregular plural små)
Definite singular:
- den gamla spisen – the old stove
- den lilla ugnen – the small oven

So gammal and liten are in their simple base form because they describe en‑words in the singular, indefinite form.

What does bara mean here, and why does it go before en kastrull?

In this context, bara means only:

bara en kastrull = only one saucepan / just one pot

bara is a focusing word: it shows a limitation. In Swedish, it normally goes right before the thing it limits:

bara en kastrull – only one saucepan
Vi är bara tre. – We are only three.
Jag har bara kontanter. – I only have cash.

So in this sentence:

bara tells us the number of kastrull is limited (only one).

A more formal synonym is endast:

endast en kastrull – only one saucepan

But bara is by far the most common in everyday speech.

Could I say Vi har bara en kastrull i köket instead? Does it mean something different?

Yes, you can say:

Vi har bara en kastrull i köket.

The basic meaning is the same: We only have one saucepan in the kitchen.

However, the emphasis (information structure) changes slightly:

I köket har vi en gammal spis, en liten ugn och bara en kastrull.
– Emphasis on the location (in the kitchen); then you list what there is there.
Vi har bara en kastrull i köket.
– Emphasis more on what you have (only one saucepan); the location i köket is added at the end.

Both are correct; which you choose depends on what you want to highlight in the conversation.

Why is there a comma before en liten ugn but no comma before och bara en kastrull?

This is about list punctuation.

In Swedish, when you have three or more items in a list, you normally:

put commas between all items except before och (and).
Swedish normally does not use an Oxford comma.

So:

en gammal spis, en liten ugn och bara en kastrull

Structure:

en gammal spis – item 1
en liten ugn – item 2, preceded by a comma
bara en kastrull – item 3, joined with och (no comma before och)

This is the standard way of listing items in both Swedish and most British English styles.

What does kastrull mean exactly? Is it a pot, a pan, or something else?

kastrull usually means a saucepan or cooking pot with high sides, used on the stove for boiling or simmering.

Typical features:

used on the stove (spis),
has higher sides than a frying pan,
often has a handle (or two small handles) and sometimes a lid.

Some related words:

stekpanna – frying pan
gryta – larger pot or stew pot (often bigger than a typical kastrull)

In many contexts, kastrull can be translated as pot in everyday English: We only have one pot.

How do you pronounce I köket har vi en gammal spis, en liten ugn och bara en kastrull?

A simple pronunciation guide (approximate, from a standard Swedish perspective):

I – like English ee in see.
köket – kö with ö like the vowel in French deux or German schön; k before ö is a soft k, somewhat like a soft sh
- y; -et is a short eh
  - t: “SHÖ-keit” (roughly).
har – like English har in hard but without the final d.
vi – like vee.
en – like English en in end (but shorter).
gammal – roughly GAM‑mal, both a sounds like in father but short; stress on gam‑.
spis – like spees (long ee).
liten – LEE‑ten, stress on li‑.
ugn – a bit tricky: short u (like a relaxed uh), then a g that often blends into n; approximate: “ughn” or “oogn”, said quickly.
och – usually pronounced just like o (oh) in everyday speech; the ch is often not clearly pronounced.
bara – BAH‑ra, both a like father; stress on ba‑.
kastrull – kas‑TRULL; a like father but short, u like u in pull; stress on the last syllable -trull.

Spoken smoothly, it sounds something like:
“I SHÖ‑keit har vee en GAM‑mal spees, en LEE‑ten ughn o BAH‑ra en kas‑TRULL.”