Learn Hardcore Swedish: Trafiken som de klagade på förut hörs knappt i det nya kvarteret där de nu bor på första våningen. - The traffic that they complained about before is hardly heard in the new neighborhood where they now live on the first floor.

Trafiken som de klagade på förut hörs knappt i det nya kvarteret där de nu bor på första våningen.

The traffic that they complained about before is hardly heard in the new neighborhood where they now live on the first floor.

Breakdown of Trafiken som de klagade på förut hörs knappt i det nya kvarteret där de nu bor på första våningen.

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Questions & Answers about Trafiken som de klagade på förut hörs knappt i det nya kvarteret där de nu bor på första våningen.

What is the function of som in “Trafiken som de klagade på förut …”, and is it like English “that/which”?

Som is a relative pronoun here. It introduces a relative clause that gives more information about trafiken:

Trafiken som de klagade på förut
= The traffic *that/which they complained about before*

So som is roughly equivalent to English “that” or “which” in these kinds of clauses.

You normally cannot omit som the way English sometimes omits that:

✅ Trafiken som de klagade på
❌ Trafiken de klagade på (this sounds wrong in standard Swedish in this structure)

There are some contexts where som can be left out in Swedish, but not in a sentence like this with a direct reference back to trafiken.

Why is the preposition på at the end of “som de klagade på” instead of before som, like in English “about which”?

Swedish, like English, allows preposition stranding, meaning the preposition can come at the end of the clause:

som de klagade på
= which/that they complained about

You can also put the preposition before the relative pronoun, but that sounds formal or old‑fashioned:

på vilken (trafik) de klagade förut
= about which (traffic) they complained earlier

Comparing:

Colloquial / neutral: Trafiken som de klagade på förut
Formal: Trafiken på vilken de klagade förut

In everyday spoken and written Swedish, the stranded version (klagade på) is by far the most common.

What exactly does “förut” mean here, and how is it different from “tidigare” or “innan”?

In this sentence, förut means “earlier / before / previously” in a fairly informal, everyday style:

som de klagade på förut
= that they complained about before / earlier

Comparisons:

förut – informal, very common in speech; neutral in most writing.
Vi bodde förut i centrum. – We used to live in the centre before.
tidigare – a bit more formal, often used in writing, reports, etc.
Trafiken som de tidigare klagade på… – The traffic that they previously complained about…
innan – usually a conjunction or preposition meaning “before” (in time) and is typically followed by a clause or a noun phrase:
innan de flyttade – before they moved
innan flytten – before the move

In this exact spot you’d normally use förut or tidigare, not innan:

✅ som de klagade på förut / tidigare
❌ som de klagade på innan (this sounds incomplete; you’d need innan de flyttade, etc.)

What does “hörs” mean grammatically in “Trafiken … hörs knappt”? Is it a passive form?

Hörs is the s‑form of the verb höra (to hear). This -s ending can mark several things in Swedish (passive, reflexive‑like or “middle” voice).

Here it is best understood as a middle / passive‑like meaning:

Trafiken … hörs knappt
= The traffic can hardly be heard / is hardly audible

So:

höra – to hear
hörs – is heard / can be heard / is audible

The subject (trafiken) is the thing that is (or isn’t) heard, not the one doing the hearing.

Why is the word order “hörs knappt” and not “knappt hörs”?

Swedish main clauses usually follow verb‑second (V2) word order: the finite verb (here: hörs) comes in the second position in the clause.

If we strip the relative clause, the core is:

Trafiken hörs knappt …
Subject = Trafiken (position 1)
Finite verb = hörs (position 2)
Adverb = knappt (after the verb)

Putting the adverb before the finite verb in a main clause would usually break the V2 rule:

✅ Trafiken hörs knappt.
❌ Trafiken knappt hörs.

In subclauses the pattern is different, but in this main clause, hörs must come before knappt.

What does “knappt” mean exactly in this context?

Knappt is an adverb meaning “barely, hardly, scarcely”.

In “hörs knappt”, it modifies the verb:

hörs knappt
= is barely heard / can hardly be heard

Other examples:

Jag har knappt tid. – I hardly have time.
Hon är knappt 18 år. – She’s barely 18.

Why is it “det nya kvarteret” and not “den nya kvarteren” or something else?

The key points are gender, definiteness, and adjective agreement:

Kvarter is a neuter noun in Swedish.
- an (indefinite) block = ett kvarter
- the block = kvarteret
With a definite noun plus an adjective, Swedish uses a double definiteness pattern:
- definite article (det/den) + adjective in definite form
  - definite noun.

Since kvarter is neuter, we use:

det (neuter definite article)
nya (definite form of the adjective)
kvarteret (definite noun form)

So we get:

det nya kvarteret – the new block/neighbourhood

If the noun were common gender instead, e.g. en lägenhet (an apartment), we’d say:

den nya lägenheten – the new apartment

What does “kvarteret” mean here, and how is it different from words like “område” or “grannskap”?

Kvarteret is the definite form of ett kvarter. Its basic meaning is:

ett kvarter – a city block, or in a broader sense, a small local area / part of a neighborhood

In everyday speech, it can feel roughly like “the block” or “the little area” where you live.

Comparisons:

kvarter – concrete, often quite small; like a block or a few adjacent streets.
område – area / district / region, more general and often larger.
ett bostadsområde – a residential area
grannskap – neighborhood, focusing on the sense of surrounding neighbours (less common in speech than område or kvarter).

In the sentence, det nya kvarteret is basically “the new area / block they’ve moved to”.

What is the role of “där” in “… det nya kvarteret där de nu bor …”? Is it like “where”?

Yes. Here där is a relative adverb meaning “where”. It introduces a clause that gives more information about det nya kvarteret:

det nya kvarteret där de nu bor
= the new block *where they now live*

You could very roughly paraphrase it more literally as:

det nya kvarteret i vilket de nu bor – the new block in which they now live

But “där de nu bor” is the natural, everyday way to say “where they now live” in Swedish.

Why is it “där de nu bor” and not “där nu de bor” or “där de bor nu”?

In subordinate clauses (like this one introduced by där), standard Swedish word order is:

connector (där)
- subject (de)
  - sentence adverb (nu, inte, ju, etc.)
    - finite verb (bor)

So:

där (where)
de (they)
nu (now – a time adverb, often treated like a sentence adverb in this slot)
bor (live)

= där de nu bor

You can say “där de bor nu” as well, and that’s also normal; in that case nu is more of a simple time adverb placed later. But “där nu de bor” is not normal word order.

So both of these are fine, with slightly different rhythm:

✅ där de nu bor
✅ där de bor nu
❌ där nu de bor

Why is it “på första våningen” and not “i första våningen”?

For floor numbers in a building, Swedish normally uses the preposition på:

på första våningen – on the first floor
på andra våningen – on the second floor
på våning fem – on the fifth floor

Using i (in) here would sound wrong or at least very unusual:

✅ De bor på första våningen.
❌ De bor i första våningen.

Why is the noun “våningen” in the definite form, and do I need “den” in front?

Våningen is the definite form of våning (floor). You add -en because:

you are talking about a specific floor, identified by the ordinal första (first).

Swedish again uses double definiteness with adjectives, but here we don’t have a separate article (den) because the noun is part of a prepositional phrase with an ordinal number:

på första våningen – on the first floor

You do not normally say:

❌ på den första våningen

That would sound overly specific or contrastive (e.g. on the first floor, not on the second), and even then it’s less common. The neutral phrase is simply:

✅ på första våningen

Could “förut” be placed somewhere else in the sentence, for example “förut klagade de på trafiken”?

Yes, förut is quite flexible in terms of position.

In the given sentence, it sits inside the relative clause:

Trafiken som de klagade på förut …
= The traffic that they complained about before…

You could make a separate main clause:

Förut klagade de på trafiken. – Before, they complained about the traffic.

Here:

Förut is in the first position of the main clause.
klagade (finite verb) is in second position, keeping the V2 rule.

Inside the relative clause, it could also appear earlier, but the given position (klagade på förut) is very natural and common.

Is this punctuation correct in Swedish? Should there be a comma before “där de nu bor”?

As written, the sentence has:

… det nya kvarteret där de nu bor på första våningen.

In modern Swedish, you normally do not put a comma before a restrictive relative clause starting with som or där. Here, “där de nu bor …” identifies which new block we are talking about, so it is restrictive.

So:

✅ det nya kvarteret där de nu bor …
❌ det nya kvarteret, där de nu bor … (this would suggest a non‑restrictive, “extra info” clause and feels off in this context)

The given punctuation is standard and correct.

Could you rephrase the Swedish sentence into two simpler sentences that keep the same meaning?

Yes. One possible way to break it up is:

De klagade förut på trafiken.
– They used to complain about the traffic before.
Nu bor de på första våningen i ett nytt kvarter, där man knappt hör trafiken.
– Now they live on the first floor in a new area, where you can hardly hear the traffic.

This removes some of the relative‑clause complexity but keeps the essential meaning of the original sentence.