Potatisen blev skalad redan i morse, så nu behöver vi bara koka den.

Because -en is the definite singular ending, so potatisen means the potato or, in context, the potatoes as a food item or batch.

Swedish often uses potatis more like a collective food noun than English does. So even if English would naturally say the potatoes, Swedish may still use singular potatisen.

Compare:

• potatis = potato / potatoes / potato as a food
• potatisen = the potato / the potatoes
• potatisar = potatoes
• potatisarna = the potatoes

This is a very common thing with food words in Swedish. Swedish can treat potatis as a mass or collective noun, where English prefers a plural count noun.

So:

• Potatisen blev skalad can refer to the potatoes prepared for the meal.
• Later, Swedish uses den because grammatically potatisen is singular.

If you wanted to make the plural explicit, you could say:

• Potatisarna blev skalade redan i morse, så nu behöver vi bara koka dem.

It is a passive construction: bli + past participle.

So:

• blev = past tense of bli (become / get / be in passive use)
• skalad = peeled

Together, blev skalad means was peeled or got peeled.

This type of passive often emphasizes the action or change of state:

• Potatisen blev skalad = the potato/potatoes got peeled / was peeled

Yes. That is also correct.

Swedish has two common passive patterns here:

• blev skalad = bli-passive
• skalades = s-passive

Both can mean was peeled.

A rough difference:

• blev skalad can feel a bit more like an event or change
• skalades is shorter and often more neutral or matter-of-fact

In this sentence, either one works well.

Skalad is the past participle of skala, which means to peel.

It behaves a lot like an adjective and agrees with gender/number:

• en skalad potatis = a peeled potato
• ett skalat äpple = a peeled apple
• skalade potatisar = peeled potatoes

In the sentence, it matches potatisen, which is common gender singular, so the form is skalad.

Redan means already, and i morse is an idiomatic expression meaning this morning.

So redan i morse means:

• already this morning
• or more naturally in some contexts, as early as this morning

I morse specifically refers to the morning of today, from the speaker’s point of view.

Because i morse is the normal idiomatic way to say this morning when talking about earlier today.

Compare:

• i morse = this morning
• på morgonen = in the morning / during the morning, more general

So here:

• redan i morse = already this morning

If you said på morgonen, it would sound less natural for this exact meaning.

Because Swedish follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb normally comes in the second position.

Here, nu is placed first in the clause:

• så nu behöver vi bara koka den

Since nu takes the first position, the finite verb behöver must come next, before the subject vi.

Compare:

• Vi behöver bara koka den nu.
• Nu behöver vi bara koka den.

Both are correct, but once nu is first, behöver must come before vi.

Here så means so.

It links the two ideas:

• the potatoes were peeled already this morning
• so now we only need to boil them

So så introduces the consequence or result.

Because after behöver, Swedish uses the infinitive form of the next verb.

So:

• behöver koka = need to boil

Not:

• behöver kokar

Koka is the infinitive, equivalent to English to boil.

After behöver, Swedish normally uses a bare infinitive, so att is usually left out.

That is why you get:

• vi behöver koka den

not normally:

• vi behöver att koka den

This is similar to how English says we need to boil it, not we need to to boil it.

Bara means only or just.

In this sentence:

• nu behöver vi bara koka den means
• now we only need to boil it

Here bara goes before koka, which makes the meaning very natural: boiling is the only step left.

You could move words around a bit, but this placement is very common and clear.

Because potatisen is grammatically common gender singular, and the matching object pronoun is den.

So:

• potatisen → den

If the sentence had explicit plural potatisarna, the pronoun would be:

• potatisarna → dem

So the grammar follows the Swedish noun form, even if English might think of it as plural.

Because the two clauses talk about different times.

• blev skalad = something that happened earlier today
• behöver vi = what is necessary now

So the sentence moves naturally from a past action to a present result:

• it was peeled this morning
• so now we only need to boil it