Learn Hardcore Swedish: Dagboken ligger i lådan som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i. - The diary lies in the drawer that she usually puts secret things in.

ligger – is lying (used for things that typically lie horizontally: books, papers, clothes, etc.)
står – is standing (for vertical/upright things: bottles, chairs, buildings)
sitter – is sitting (for people/animals sitting, or things that are “sitting” attached somewhere)
är – is (more general, but sounds less natural in location sentences where a position verb fits)

A diary is typically imagined as a book lying flat in a drawer, so Swedes say:

Dagboken ligger i lådan. – The diary is (lying) in the drawer.

You can say Dagboken är i lådan, and it’s not wrong, but it sounds less idiomatic and a bit more neutral/abstract.

Why are Dagboken and lådan in the definite form?

Swedish marks definiteness directly on the noun:

en dagbok → dagboken (the diary)
en låda → lådan (the drawer)

In English, you add the in front; in Swedish, you attach a definite ending:

-en (or -n) for most en-words
-et (or -t) for most ett-words

In this sentence, we’re talking about a specific diary and a specific drawer (the one that she usually puts secret things in), so both must be definite:

Dagboken ligger i lådan … – The diary is in the drawer …

What is the function of som in lådan som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i?

Som is a relative pronoun here, like that/which in English.

lådan som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i
literally: the drawer that she usually puts secret things in

So:

lådan = the drawer
som = that / which
som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i = (the clause describing which drawer)

The whole som-clause modifies lådan and tells you which drawer.

Why is the preposition i at the very end of som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i? Isn’t that wrong?

In spoken and normal written Swedish, it is perfectly natural to put the preposition at the end of a som-clause, just like in English:

lådan som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i
= the drawer that she usually puts secret things in

This is called preposition stranding, and Swedish allows it in everyday style.

A very formal alternative would be:

lådan i vilken hon brukar lägga hemliga saker
(literally: the drawer in which she usually puts secret things)

But that sounds stiff and old‑fashioned in everyday language. The sentence you have is the normal, natural choice.

Could you use där instead of som and say lådan där hon brukar lägga hemliga saker?

Yes, you can, and it is also natural:

lådan där hon brukar lägga hemliga saker
= the drawer where she usually puts secret things

Difference in feel:

som – a more general relative pronoun (that/which). With a stranded preposition (… som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i) it corresponds closely to English that … in.
där – a relative adverb of place (where). You don’t add i at the end then, because där already includes the idea of location.

So:

lådan som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i
lådan där hon brukar lägga hemliga saker

Both are correct; där is slightly more compact and maybe a bit more written/formal, but still very common.

What does brukar mean, and why isn’t it just a present tense like lägger?

Brukar is a special verb meaning to usually do / to tend to do.

Pattern:

bruka (infinitive) + another verb in infinitive

In your sentence:

hon brukar lägga …
= she usually puts … / she tends to put …

So:

hon lägger hemliga saker i lådan
= she is putting / she puts secret things in the drawer (simple present)
hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i lådan
= she usually puts secret things in the drawer (habitual action)

Brukar does not take -r off another verb. Instead, brukar is the present-tense verb, and lägga stays in infinitive.

Why is it lägga and not lägger in hon brukar lägga hemliga saker?

Swedish uses this pattern:

[conjugated verb] + [infinitive]

When you have brukar, vill, kan, måste, etc., the next verb appears in the infinitive (the “dictionary form”):

hon brukar lägga – she usually puts
hon vill lägga – she wants to put
hon kan lägga – she can put

So:

hon lägger – she puts (simple present, one verb)
hon brukar lägga – she usually puts (auxiliary + infinitive)

What is the difference between lägga, ställa, and sätta in this context?

These are Swedish placement verbs, and native speakers are quite strict about them:

lägga – to lay, put something lying down / horizontally
- Jag lägger boken på bordet. – I lay the book on the table.
ställa – to put something standing / upright
- Jag ställer flaskan på bordet. – I put the bottle on the table.
sätta – to seat/place (often for people or things with sitting position)
- Jag sätter barnet på stolen. – I seat the child on the chair.

A diary (as a book) is normally thought of as lying in a drawer, so lägga is the natural choice:

hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i lådan
– she usually puts (lays) secret things in the drawer.

Why is it hemliga saker and not hemlig saker?

Because saker is plural, and adjectives in front of indefinite plural nouns take an -a ending:

en hemlig sak – a secret thing
flera hemliga saker – several secret things

Patterns:

Indefinite singular:
- en röd bok – a red book
- ett rött äpple – a red apple
Indefinite plural (both en- and ett-words):
- röda böcker – red books
- röda äpplen – red apples

So with saker (plural of sak):

hemliga saker = secret things (indefinite plural)

Why is it hemliga saker and not de hemliga sakerna?

De hemliga sakerna would mean the secret things (definite plural):

hemliga saker – (some) secret things
de hemliga sakerna – the secret things

In this sentence, the drawer is characterized in a general way: it’s a drawer she usually uses for secret things, not necessarily some specific set that both speaker and listener already know.

So the indefinite plural hemliga saker sounds natural: we care more about the kind of things (secret ones) than about identifying which exact things they are.

What is the word order inside the relative clause som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i? Could it be reordered?

The basic order here is:

som (relative pronoun)
hon (subject)
brukar (finite verb)
lägga (infinitive)
hemliga saker (object)
i (preposition stranded at the end)

So we have regular subject–verb–object (SVO) after som:

som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i

You cannot move brukar after lägga, and you cannot place hon after brukar in this kind of clause. These are wrong:

✗ som brukar hon lägga hemliga saker i
✗ som hon lägga brukar hemliga saker i

You could make a more formal version by not stranding the preposition:

som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i (normal)
i vilken hon brukar lägga hemliga saker (formal)

But the “normal” version is exactly what Swedes would say.

How would this sentence look in the past tense?

Change the present-tense verbs to past tense:

ligger → låg (lay / was lying)
brukar → brukade (used to / usually did)
lägga stays in infinitive after brukade

So:

Dagboken låg i lådan som hon brukade lägga hemliga saker i.
= The diary was in the drawer that she used to put secret things in.

Could Swedish drop hon the way some languages drop subject pronouns?

No. In standard Swedish you must include the subject pronoun:

som hon brukar lägga hemliga saker i – correct
✗ som brukar lägga hemliga saker i – incorrect

Unlike Spanish or Italian, Swedish is not a “pro‑drop” language in normal usage. Every finite verb needs an explicit subject (unless it is an imperative or a fixed expression).