Learn Hardcore Swedish: Efter festen blir trappan och källaren alltid noggrant städade av hela familjen. - After the party the stairs and the basement are always carefully cleaned by the whole family.

… är alltid noggrant städade …
This sounds more like a resulting state:
“After the party, the staircase and the basement are (in the state of being) clean.”
It says less about the cleaning action as an event.
… städas alltid noggrant av hela familjen.
Using the -s passive (städas) is also correct and common:
“After the party, the staircase and the basement are always thoroughly cleaned by the whole family.”
This focuses directly on the passive action, without blir.

So:

blir städade = passive formed with bli
- past participle, highlighting the action/event.
städas = -s passive, more compact, also good.
är städade = emphasizes state/result, not so much the cleaning event itself.

In everyday Swedish, both blir städade and städas would be natural here; är städade changes the nuance.

Why is it trappan (singular) when English says “the stairs” (plural)?

Swedish and English divide this concept differently:

trappa = “staircase / stairway”
trappan = “the staircase” (definite singular)

English usually says the stairs (plural) for what Swedish treats as one object (a staircase). So:

trappan → “the stairs” or “the staircase”
källaren → “the basement”

Both are definite singular in Swedish: trappan och källaren, but in English you naturally say “the stairs and the basement.”

Why are trappan and källaren in the definite form (-n / -en)?

Because we’re talking about specific, known places:

trappa → trappan (“the staircase / the stairs”)
källare → källaren (“the basement”)

In Swedish, you normally use the definite form for:

parts of a specific house: kökET, vardagsrumsSOFFAN, källarEN
things clearly identified from context, like “after the party (at our house)” → obviously our staircase and our basement.

So trappan och källaren means the particular staircase and the particular basement of that place.

Why is the participle städade plural? Why not städad?

The past participle städad agrees with the grammatical subject in gender and number.

Subject here: trappan och källaren
That is two items → grammatically plural.

Agreement patterns:

Singular en-word: trappan är städad (“the staircase is cleaned”)
Singular en-word: källaren är städad (“the basement is cleaned”)
Plural: trappan och källaren är städade (“the staircase and the basement are cleaned”)

In our sentence:

trappan och källaren … blir … städade (plural form)

So städade is plural to match the plural subject.

Why is noggrant used and not noggrann or noggranna?

Here noggrant works as an adverb, describing how the cleaning is done (“thoroughly”), not describing the nouns directly.

noggrann = “thorough” (adjective, common gender singular: en noggrann person)
noggrant = “thoroughly” (adverb; same form as neuter adjective)
noggranna = plural adjective: noggranna personer

In Swedish, many adverbs are formed from the neuter form of the adjective, so:

en noggrann kontroll – “a thorough check”
ett noggrant arbete – “a thorough job”
Han arbetar noggrant. – “He works thoroughly.”

In the sentence, noggrant modifies städade as an adverbial:
blir … alltid noggrant städade = “are always thoroughly cleaned.”

So noggrant does not agree in gender/number here; it’s in its adverbial form.

Why is alltid placed between blir and noggrant? Where can it go?

Neutral, natural word order:

… blir alltid noggrant städade …
(verb blir – then adverb alltid – then other material)

Regarding position:

Efter festen blir trappan och källaren alltid noggrant städade av hela familjen. ✅ (natural)
Efter festen blir trappan och källaren noggrant alltid städade av hela familjen. ❌ (feels awkward/wrong)
Efter festen blir alltid trappan och källaren noggrant städade av hela familjen.
Possible, but puts extra emphasis on “always the staircase and the basement (as opposed to other things).”

General rule: sentence adverbs like alltid, ofta, inte usually come:

after the finite verb in main clauses:
- De blir alltid trötta.
- Huset städas inte idag.

So blir alltid is the standard placement here.

Why does the sentence start with Efter festen? Does that change the word order?

Yes. Swedish main clauses follow a verb-second (V2) rule: the finite verb must be in the second position.

Base order (subject first):

Trappan och källaren blir alltid noggrant städade efter festen.

Here:

Trappan och källaren (subject)
blir (finite verb)

When you move Efter festen to the front for emphasis or flow, something still has to stay in second position: the verb blir.

So:

Efter festen (adverbial – 1st position)
blir (finite verb – 2nd position, required)
trappan och källaren (subject – now in 3rd position)

This is standard in Swedish:

Idag äter vi pizza.
På sommaren åker hon ofta till landet.
Efter festen blir trappan och källaren … städade …

Why is it Efter festen (definite) and not Efter en fest?

The choice changes the meaning:

Efter festen = “After the party” – a specific, known party (e.g., “our usual family party”, “that particular party we talked about”).
Efter en fest = “After a party” – any party, not specified.

In the given sentence, the situation seems to be a routine connected to a particular, known event: the party in that home. That’s why festen is definite.

Both forms are grammatically correct; you just pick the one that fits the intended meaning.

What does hela familjen literally mean, and why is hela used instead of something like alla familjen?

hela familjen literally = “the whole family.”

hel/hela = “whole, entire”
hela is used before a definite noun:
- hela dagen – the whole day
- hela huset – the whole house
- hela familjen – the whole family

You don’t say alla familjen in this meaning. Instead:

alla i familjen = “everyone in the family”

So:

städas av hela familjen = cleaned by the whole family (as a unit)
städas av alla i familjen = cleaned by everyone in the family (more focus on individuals)

In your sentence, av hela familjen is the natural collocation.

What is the function of av here in av hela familjen?

In a passive construction, av introduces the agent – the one who actually performs the action.

Active: Hela familjen städar trappan och källaren.
Passive: Trappan och källaren blir städade av hela familjen.

So:

städade = “cleaned” (past participle, passive)
av hela familjen = “by the whole family” (agent phrase)

This is exactly parallel to English passive by:

“are cleaned by the whole family”
→ “blir städade av hela familjen”

Could we make this sentence active instead of passive? How would it change the feel?

Active version:

Efter festen städar hela familjen alltid trappan och källaren noggrant.

Meaning is basically the same: the family cleans the staircase and the basement thoroughly after the party.

Differences:

Passive (original): focuses on what happens to the staircase and basement. The objects become the subject: trappan och källaren.
Active: focuses on who does it – hela familjen.

Both are grammatical; choice depends on what you want to highlight:

emphasise the places and the regular cleaning → passive is natural.
emphasise the family’s action/responsibility → active is natural.

Is the word order “… noggrant städade av hela familjen” fixed, or could we say “städade noggrant av hela familjen”?

Both are possible, but the given order is more typical in careful, neutral style.

… blir alltid noggrant städade av hela familjen.
Very natural. Adverb noggrant comes before the participle städade.
… blir alltid städade noggrant av hela familjen.
Also acceptable; it sounds slightly more spoken or with a bit of emphasis on the adverb afterwards.

Swedish allows some flexibility in where you place adverbs like noggrant, but the “adverb before participle” pattern (as in the original) is very common and usually the safest choice.