Learn Hardcore Swedish: När han ler känns hela ansiktet lugnt och hjärtat lugnare. - When he smiles, his whole face feels calm and his heart feels calmer.

The finite verb must come in second position in the clause.
Whatever comes first (subject, adverb, subordinate clause, etc.), the verb comes next.

If we say the sentence without the När‑clause:

Hela ansiktet känns lugnt.
→ Subject (Hela ansiktet) is first, verb (känns) is second.

When we add the subordinate clause at the beginning:

När han ler, känns hela ansiktet lugnt …
→ First position: När han ler (a whole clause counts as “one thing”)
→ Second position: känns (the main verb)
→ Then comes the subject: hela ansiktet

So känns hela ansiktet is normal Swedish word order here because of the V2 rule.

Why do we use känns and not är? What’s the difference between känns lugnt and är lugnt?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

är lugnt = “is calm”
→ A more objective statement of a state or quality.
känns lugnt = “feels calm”
→ Emphasises how something is experienced, often subjectively or emotionally.

In the sentence:

… känns hela ansiktet lugnt och hjärtat lugnare.
→ The focus is on how his face and heart feel (to himself or to an observer), not just on a neutral fact.

You could say:

När han ler är hela ansiktet lugnt …
That would be correct but a bit less emotional; känns highlights the perceived inner calm.

What is the difference between känns and känner (sig)? Could I say “När han ler känner han sig lugn …” instead?

Yes, you can, but they work slightly differently:

känns comes from kännas, which is often used without an explicit experiencer:
- Det känns bra. = It feels good.
- Hela kroppen känns trött. = The whole body feels tired.
känner sig explicitly includes the person who feels something:
- Han känner sig lugn. = He feels calm (himself).

In your sentence:

… känns hela ansiktet lugnt och hjärtat lugnare.
→ Focus on face and heart as things that feel a certain way.

If you say:

När han ler känner han sig lugnare i hela ansiktet och i hjärtat.
→ Focus shifts more to his internal feeling (“he feels calmer”), not to how the face/heart themselves “feel” as objects.
Both are grammatical; the original is more poetic and image‑focused.

Why is there no “his” in hela ansiktet and hjärtat? Why not hela hans ansikte / hans hjärta?

Swedish often omits possessive pronouns (min, din, hans, hennes, etc.) when it’s obvious whose body part we’re talking about.

Han öppnade ögonen.
= He opened (his) eyes.
Hon kammade håret.
= She combed (her) hair.

So:

När han ler känns hela ansiktet lugnt och hjärtat lugnare.
→ It’s clear from context that it’s his face and his heart, so hans is not needed.

You can say:

När han ler känns hela hans ansikte lugnt och hans hjärta lugnare.

That is correct but sounds more emphatic or contrastive, or slightly heavier in style. In everyday Swedish, you’d normally just skip the possessive here.

Why are ansiktet and hjärtat in the definite form? What are their base forms?

Both are neuter nouns (ett‑words), and they appear in the definite singular here:

Base form: ett ansikte = a face
Definite: ansiktet = the face
Base form: ett hjärta = a heart
Definite: hjärtat = the heart

In the sentence:

hela ansiktet = the whole face
hjärtat = the heart

Swedish usually uses the definite form for body parts in these kinds of “his/her X” contexts:

Han blundade och sänkte huvudet.
= He closed (his) eyes and lowered (his) head.

So ansiktet and hjärtat are definite because it’s his particular face and heart.

Why is it lugnt but lugnare? Shouldn’t it be lugnt for both, since both ansiktet and hjärtat are neuter?

Two different grammar rules are at work:

Agreement in gender/number (positive form)
For normal adjectives in positive form (basic form), the adjective agrees with the noun:
- ett ansikte – ansiktet är lugnt
- ett hjärta – hjärtat är lugnt
So lugnt (with ‑t) is the neuter singular form of lugn.
Comparative form doesn’t change
In comparative form (lugnare = calmer), you do not add endings for gender or number in predicative position:
- Huset är större. (The house is bigger.)
- Bilen är större. (The car is bigger.)
- Stolarna är större. (The chairs are bigger.)
Same with lugn:
- ansiktet är lugnt
- hjärtat är lugnt
- ansiktet är lugnare
- hjärtat är lugnare

So in your sentence:

… ansiktet lugnt → positive form, neuter agreement
… hjärtat lugnare → comparative form, no extra ‑t.

Is lugnt here an adjective or an adverb?

Formally, lugnt looks the same as:

the neuter form of the adjective lugn, and
the adverb derived from lugn.

In this sentence, it functions as a predicative adjective, agreeing with ansiktet:

(Hela) ansiktet är/känns lugnt.
→ lugnt describes the state of the face, i.e. it’s an adjective.

If it were a pure adverb, it would usually describe how something is done, e.g.:

Han talar lugnt. = He speaks calmly. (modifies the verb talar)

Here, it’s not modifying känns (how it feels), but giving the state of the subject. So it’s best analysed as an adjective agreeing with a neuter noun.

Could the sentence be “När han ler känns hela hans ansikte lugnt och hans hjärta lugnare.”? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct, and the meaning is essentially the same:

När han ler känns hela hans ansikte lugnt och hans hjärta lugnare.

Differences in feel:

With hans repeated, the sentence sounds:
- more explicit,
- slightly more formal or emphatic, and
- maybe a bit more written than spoken.

The original:

När han ler känns hela ansiktet lugnt och hjärtat lugnare.

relies on the typical Swedish pattern of omitting possessives with body parts, which sounds more natural and fluent in everyday usage.

Why is it hela ansiktet and not hela det ansiktet? Where is the word for “the”?

In Swedish, the definite article for nouns is usually a suffix, not a separate word:

ett ansikte → ansiktet = the face
ett hjärta → hjärtat = the heart

You only use den / det / de in front of nouns in certain cases, for example:

With an adjective and a definite noun:
- det vackra ansiktet = the beautiful face
In some demonstrative or contrastive uses:
- det ansiktet, inte det andra = that face, not the other one

With hela (whole/entire), the normal structure is:

hela + definite noun
→ hela ansiktet, hela hjärtat, hela dagen, etc.

So hela ansiktet already means the whole face; there is no extra det needed.

Why is there no comma after ler? Would “När han ler, känns …” be wrong?

Both versions are acceptable in modern Swedish:

När han ler känns hela ansiktet lugnt …
När han ler, känns hela ansiktet lugnt …

Traditional Swedish punctuation often avoids a comma between a short subordinate clause and the main clause if the flow is clear. Many writers therefore skip the comma after short När‑clauses.

Adding a comma:

is not wrong,
may make the pause more visible,
is more a matter of style than grammar here.

So the sentence without a comma is completely standard.

What is the infinitive of ler, and how does this verb conjugate?

The verb is le (to smile). Some key forms:

Infinitive: att le = to smile
Present: ler = smiles / is smiling
- Han ler. = He smiles / He is smiling.
Past (preterite): log = smiled
- Han log. = He smiled.
Supine (for perfect tenses): lett
- Han har lett. = He has smiled.

So in your sentence:

När han ler …
= When he smiles … (present tense form of le).