Hyresvärden säger att porten ska vara låst efter klockan tio.

In Swedish, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

• hyresvärd = landlord
• hyresvärden = the landlord
• port = gate / entrance door
• porten = the gate / entrance door

So the -en here works like English the.

Not necessarily. Swedish nouns are not grammatically marked for natural gender in the same way English sometimes is.

So hyresvärden can refer to:

• a man
• a woman
• a company or housing association acting as the landlord

If you specifically wanted to say female landlord, you might sometimes hear hyresvärdinna, but that is much less common and can sound old-fashioned.

It is a compound noun:

• hyra = rent
• värd = host, keeper, owner, landlord

So hyresvärd literally relates to the person or organization that rents out a property. Swedish uses compound nouns very freely, so this kind of word formation is very common.

Porten usually refers to the main entrance of a building, especially an apartment building, block, or courtyard entrance. It often has a slightly more formal or larger-scale feeling than dörren.

• dörren = the door
• porten = the gate / entrance / main outer door

In this sentence, porten strongly suggests the building’s main entrance rather than just any ordinary door inside.

Att means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• Hyresvärden säger = The landlord says
• att porten ska vara låst = that the entrance should be locked

In English, that is often omitted: The landlord says the entrance should be locked...
In Swedish, att is much more commonly kept, especially in normal written language.

Because after att, you are in a subordinate clause, and Swedish word order changes.

In a main clause, Swedish normally uses verb-second word order. But in a subordinate clause, the subject usually comes before the finite verb.

So here:

• att
• porten = subject
• ska = finite verb
• vara låst = rest of the predicate

That is why att porten ska vara låst is correct.

Ska is a modal verb. In this sentence, it expresses a rule, expectation, or instruction: the entrance is supposed to be locked after ten.

It is not exactly the same as English will here. Depending on context, ska can mean things like:

• should
• is to
• is supposed to
• must, in a rule-like sense

So ska vara låst means something like should be locked or is supposed to be locked.

These forms mean different things.

• är låst = is locked
  This describes the current state as a fact.
• ska vara låst = should be locked / is supposed to be locked
  This expresses a rule or expectation.
• låses = is locked / gets locked
  This passive form focuses more on the action.

So ska vara låst is a natural choice when talking about what the rule is, not just what the situation happens to be right now.

Låst is the past participle of låsa, meaning to lock. In this sentence it functions like an adjective after vara.

• låsa = to lock
• låst = locked

So vara låst means to be locked.

This is very common in Swedish:

• Dörren är stängd = The door is closed
• Fönstret är öppet = The window is open
• Porten ska vara låst = The entrance should be locked

It means after ten o’clock.

In this context, it will normally be understood as after 10 p.m., because the sentence is about when a building entrance should be locked. If you wanted to make that completely explicit, you could say:

• efter klockan tio på kvällen = after ten in the evening

But in everyday Swedish, the shorter version is often enough if the context makes it clear.

Klockan literally means the clock, but in time expressions it works like at ... o’clock or simply marks a clock time.

So:

• klockan tio = ten o’clock
• efter klockan tio = after ten o’clock

This is a very common pattern in Swedish when talking about exact times.

Sometimes, especially in informal speech, yes. You may hear:

• Hyresvärden säger porten ska vara låst efter klockan tio.

But in standard written Swedish, keeping att is usually the safest and most natural choice:

• Hyresvärden säger att porten ska vara låst efter klockan tio.

So for learners, it is best to include att unless you have a good reason not to.

Grammatically, it reports what the landlord says. The sentence itself is not a direct command; it is reported speech.

That said, because of ska vara låst, it clearly communicates a rule or expectation. So the overall effect is: the landlord says this is what the rule is.