Learn Hardcore Swedish: Hon minns tydligt hur stark oron var förra året. - She clearly remembers how strong the anxiety was last year.

Minns is the present tense of the verb minnas and means “to remember”.
So Hon minns tydligt … = “She clearly remembers …”.
Grammatically, minnas is an s‑verb (it always ends in ‑s), but it behaves like a normal verb: Jag minns det = “I remember it.”

Could I use kommer ihåg instead of minns? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Hon kommer tydligt ihåg hur stark oron var förra året.

This is very natural.
Minnas is a bit more formal/literary, while komma ihåg is very common in everyday speech. In most contexts they mean the same thing.

Why is tydligt after minns and not somewhere else?

In Swedish, adverbs like tydligt (“clearly”) often come right after the verb in a main clause:

Hon minns tydligt …

You could also put it at the very end:

Hon minns hur stark oron var förra året tydligt.

…but that sounds unusual and a bit clumsy in Swedish. The neutral, natural place here is after minns.

What exactly is tydligt? Why not tydlig?

Tydlig is the adjective = “clear.”
Tydligt is the adverb = “clearly.”

You use tydligt to describe how she remembers (the manner):

Hon minns tydligt = “She remembers clearly.”
Compare: en tydlig signal = “a clear signal” (adjective).

What is the function of hur here? Is it a conjunction or a question word?

Here hur introduces an indirect question / content clause and means “how” in the sense of “to what degree” or “in what way”:

hur stark oron var = “how strong the anxiety was.”

So hur is behaving like the same word you’d use in a direct question:

Hur stark var oron? = “How strong was the anxiety?”
Hon minns hur stark oron var. = “She remembers how strong the anxiety was.”

Why is the word order hur stark oron var and not hur oron var stark?

Because this is a subordinate clause (a clause inside the sentence), the normal pattern is:

hur + predicate/adjective + subject + verb

So:

Direct question: Hur stark var oron (förra året)?
Indirect clause: hur stark oron var (förra året).

In indirect clauses introduced by words like hur, you don’t do the typical Swedish V2 word order (verb in second position like in main questions). Instead, the verb (var) comes after the subject (oron).

Why is it oron and not just oro?

Oro means “worry / anxiety”.

oro = indefinite (“worry” in general)
oron = definite (“the worry / the anxiety” – a specific, known worry)

In this sentence, they’re talking about a particular, already known worry, so Swedish uses the definite form:

oron = “the anxiety / the worry.”

Is oro an en‑word or an ett‑word? How do its forms work?

Oro is an en‑word:

en oro – a worry / anxiety
oron – the worry / the anxiety
oror – worries (plural, used when you mean separate, countable worries)
ororna – the worries

In abstract, emotional sense, you often see just oro or oron, not the plural.

Why is it stark and not starka or starkt?

Here stark is a predicative adjective (used after “to be”):

oron var stark = “the anxiety was strong.”

Predicative adjectives do not get the definite ‑a ending, even if the noun is definite:

den starka oron (attributive, before the noun)
oron är stark (predicative, after the verb “to be”)

Gender/number still matter:

huset är starkt (neuter singular)
husen är starka (plural)

Can I say Hon minns tydligt att oron var stark förra året instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct:

Hon minns tydligt att oron var stark förra året.
= “She clearly remembers that the anxiety was strong last year.”

Difference in nuance:

att oron var stark just states the fact that it was strong.
hur stark oron var focuses on the degree / intensity (“how strong”).

So hur adds a bit more emphasis on how intense it felt.

Why is minns in the present tense but var in the past tense?

Minns (remembers) is in the present because this is about what she remembers now.
Var (was) is in the past because the worry was strong last year.

This is the same pattern as in English:

“She remembers how strong the anxiety was last year.”

Where can förra året go in the sentence? Is the current position fixed?

In this sentence, the most natural place is at the end of the subordinate clause:

Hon minns tydligt hur stark oron var förra året.

Other options inside that clause are theoretically possible, but sound unusual or very marked:

?Hon minns tydligt hur stark oron förra året var. (odd, poetic/special emphasis)

If you make it a main clause, time can often go early:

Förra året var oron stark. = “Last year the anxiety was strong.”

What is the difference between förra året and i fjol?

Both mean “last year”:

förra året – very common, neutral
i fjol – also correct, but a bit more literary/old‑fashioned in some regions

You could say:

Hon minns tydligt hur stark oron var i fjol.

Should it be hennes oro or sin oro instead of oron?

Not necessarily. Oron can refer to:

a general or shared anxiety (e.g. in a group, in society)
a specific, previously mentioned anxiety that the context makes clear

If you say hennes oro = “her worry,” you highlight that it is specifically her own, personally owned worry:

Hon minns tydligt hur stark hennes oro var förra året.

Use sin oro only when it refers back to the subject of the clause (here, hon), and in a structure where a possessive is needed, e.g.:

Hon minns tydligt hur stark sin oro var förra året.
(grammatically possible but less natural; Swedes prefer hennes oro here.)

In the original sentence, oron by itself is perfectly natural.

What is the direct question form corresponding to hur stark oron var förra året?

The direct question would be:

Hur stark var oron förra året?
= “How strong was the anxiety last year?”

The original sentence simply turns that question clause into the object of minns:

Hon minns tydligt hur stark oron var förra året.
= “She clearly remembers how strong the anxiety was last year.”