Learn Hardcore Swedish: I sin dagbok skriver hon om en gammal konflikt i familjen. - In her diary she writes about an old conflict in the family.

sin/sitt/sina = her/his/their own (refers back to the subject of the same clause)
hennes/hans/deras = her/his/their (refers to someone else, not the subject)

In I sin dagbok skriver hon..., the diary belongs to hon (she), who is also the subject of skriver. So Swedish uses the reflexive form sin.

If you said:

I hennes dagbok skriver hon..., it would normally be understood as:
In someone else’s diary (some other woman’s diary), she writes...

Why does the sentence start with I sin dagbok instead of Hon?

Swedish main clauses obey the V2 rule: the finite verb (here: skriver) must be in second position in the clause, but anything can stand in first position for emphasis or information structure.

Basic order:

Hon skriver i sin dagbok... (subject first)

If you move a different element to the front, the verb still has to be second, so you get inversion:

I sin dagbok (fronted phrase) skriver (verb, still 2nd) hon (subject) ...

Starting with I sin dagbok puts emphasis on where she is writing – the location (in the diary) is what the speaker wants to highlight first.

Is Hon skriver i sin dagbok om en gammal konflikt i familjen also correct? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, it is grammatically correct and means essentially the same thing.

I sin dagbok skriver hon om... – emphasizes in her diary by placing it first.
Hon skriver i sin dagbok om... – more neutral, starts with the subject hon.

Both are natural; the difference is mostly in information flow and emphasis, not in basic meaning.

Why is the preposition om used here? Could you use something else instead of om?

In Swedish, the common way to say write about something is:

skriva om något = to write about something

So:

skriver ... om en gammal konflikt = (she) writes about an old conflict

The preposition om is the standard choice with verbs like:

tala om – talk about
läsa om – read about
handla om – be about

Other prepositions like över, på, åt would not work here with skriva to mean about. You really need om.

Why is it en gammal konflikt and not den gamla konflikten?

The choice between en gammal konflikt and den gamla konflikten is mainly about definiteness and whether the speaker assumes the listener knows which conflict it is.

en gammal konflikt
- indefinite: an old conflict (unspecified)
- The listener does not need to know exactly which conflict beforehand.
den gamla konflikten
- definite: the old conflict (a particular one we both know about)
- Used if this conflict has already been mentioned, or is clearly identifiable in the context.

In the given sentence, the speaker is introducing the conflict as new information, so en gammal konflikt is natural.

Why is it i familjen (definite) and not i en familj?

i familjen means in the family (a specific, known family) – typically her own family, or the family already understood from context.

familjen = the family (definite; the article is a suffix in Swedish)
en familj = a family (indefinite; some family or other)

Here, the conflict is inside her own family, so it is a specific family, and Swedish uses the definite form familjen.

Compare:

en gammal konflikt i familjen – a certain old conflict in (the) family
en gammal konflikt i en familj – an old conflict in some (unspecified) family

How does sin work with gender and number? Why sin dagbok and not something else?

The reflexive possessive pronoun has three forms:

sin – with en‑words (common gender, singular)
sitt – with ett‑words (neuter, singular)
sina – with plural nouns

The form agrees with the possessed noun, not with the owner.

dagbok is an en‑word (en dagbok), so you must use sin:
- sin dagbok – her/his/their (own) diary

More examples:

sin bil (en bil) – her/his/their own car
sitt hus (ett hus) – her/his/their own house
sina böcker (plural) – her/his/their own books

Could hon be replaced by han or de without changing the rest of the sentence?

Yes. The verb form skriver is the same for all persons in the present tense, and sin only depends on the noun (dagbok), not on who owns it.

So you can say:

I sin dagbok skriver han om en gammal konflikt i familjen.
I sin dagbok skriver de om en gammal konflikt i familjen.

In all cases, sin dagbok = his/her/their own diary, referring back to the subject (han, hon, de).

How is the present tense skriver used here? Does it mean “is writing” or “writes”?

Swedish has only one present tense form, and it covers several English uses:

skriver can mean:
- writes (habitually/repeatedly)
- is writing (right now)
- sometimes has written / has been writing if context makes it clear

In this sentence, skriver could mean:

She regularly writes about this conflict in her diary; or
She is currently writing about it.

Context decides which English translation fits best, but the Swedish verb form itself is just skriver.

Where would inte go if I want to say “She does not write about an old conflict in the family in her diary”?

With negation inte, word order still follows the V2 rule. Two natural options:

Keep the original fronted phrase:
- I sin dagbok skriver hon inte om en gammal konflikt i familjen.
Structure:
- I sin dagbok (1st) – fronted phrase
- skriver (2nd) – finite verb
- hon – subject
- inte – negation
- om en gammal konflikt i familjen – rest of the clause
Start with the subject:
- Hon skriver inte om en gammal konflikt i familjen i sin dagbok.

Both are correct. The exact position of i sin dagbok can shift for emphasis, but inte normally comes after the verb and after the subject in main clauses.