Förr brukade vi bo på tredje våningen utan hiss.

Förr means in the past, back then, or formerly. In this sentence it sets the whole situation in an earlier time.

It is not exactly the same as English before in every context. Here it is a general time adverb meaning that this was true earlier, but not necessarily now.

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

So:

• Förr = first element
• brukade = finite verb, so it must come second
• vi = subject, which comes after the verb here

That is why you get:

• Förr brukade vi bo...

and not:

• Förr vi brukade bo...

This is a very common Swedish word-order pattern.

Brukade means used to.

So brukade bo means used to live.

It describes a past habit or a situation that was true for some time in the past. It often suggests that the situation is no longer true now.

For example:

• Jag brukade läsa mycket. = I used to read a lot.
• Vi brukade bo där. = We used to live there.

After bruka in this meaning, Swedish normally uses the bare infinitive, without att.

So you say:

• brukade bo
• brukade gå
• brukade läsa

not:

• brukade att bo

This is similar to English used to live, where you also do not add an extra word like to after used to in the same way you might expect from other patterns.

Bo is the infinitive form of the verb, meaning to live or to reside.

In the sentence, it comes after brukade, so it stays in the infinitive:

• brukade bo = used to live

The verb bo is specifically about where someone lives, not about being alive.

Swedish normally uses på for floors of a building.

So:

• på tredje våningen = on the third floor

Even though English sometimes says on and sometimes learners expect in, Swedish idiomatically uses på here.

Other examples:

• Jag bor på första våningen.
• Kontoret ligger på fjärde våningen.

In Swedish, when an ordinal number such as första, andra, tredje comes before a noun in this kind of expression, the noun is usually in the definite form.

So Swedish says:

• tredje våningen = the third floor

not normally:

• tredje våning

This is a very common pattern:

• första dagen = the first day
• andra gången = the second time
• tredje våningen = the third floor

Not always perfectly.

Traditionally in Swedish:

• bottenvåningen = ground floor
• första våningen = the floor above the ground floor

So in some contexts, Swedish floor numbering may be one level different from what some English speakers expect, depending on whether they use British or American floor numbering.

In everyday modern use, context usually makes the meaning clear, but it is good to know that floor numbering can be a cultural language point.

After utan, Swedish often leaves out the indefinite article when speaking in a general way.

So:

• utan hiss = without an elevator/lift

This is very natural Swedish. It means the building did not have an elevator, not that one specific elevator is missing in some special sense.

You will often see the same pattern in similar expressions:

• utan problem = without problems
• utan bil = without a car
• utan pengar = without money

Sometimes utan en... is possible, but utan hiss is the most natural version here.

It means both. Hiss is the Swedish word for the machine that carries people between floors in a building.

So depending on the variety of English:

• British English: lift
• American English: elevator

Yes, you could, but the nuance is slightly different.

• Förr brukade vi bo... emphasizes a past situation or former habit: we used to live...
• Förr bodde vi... simply states that in the past, we lived...

Both are possible, but brukade bo gives a stronger used to feeling.

A close word-by-word breakdown is:

• Förr = formerly / in the past
• brukade = used to
• vi = we
• bo = live
• på = on
• tredje våningen = the third floor
• utan hiss = without elevator/lift

So the sentence structure is very close to:

Formerly used-to we live on the third floor without elevator

Natural English would of course be:

We used to live on the third floor without an elevator/lift.