När hon kom till porten, tryckte hon på fel knapp och väckte grannen.

När means when and introduces a time clause: När hon kom till porten = When she came/got to the entrance door.

This first part sets the scene for what happened next. It is a subordinate clause, and the main action comes after the comma: tryckte hon på fel knapp och väckte grannen.

This is because Swedish uses V2 word order in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

Here, the whole subordinate clause När hon kom till porten takes the first position, so the verb in the main clause must come next:

• När hon kom till porten, tryckte hon på fel knapp...

If you started directly with the subject, you would say:

• Hon tryckte på fel knapp.

But after an opening time clause, Swedish puts the verb before the subject in the main clause.

Kom is the past tense of komma, meaning come.
With till, it means came to or got to a place:

• kom till porten = came to the entrance door / reached the entrance

So till marks the destination.

Port means gate, entry door, or building entrance, depending on context. In this sentence, porten most naturally means the entrance door or the main door to the building.

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun, so:

• en port = a gate / an entrance door
• porten = the gate / the entrance door

Swedish often puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

In Swedish, trycka på means press or push a button, switch, etc.

So:

• trycka on its own can mean press/push
• trycka på en knapp = press a button

This is the normal expression. English learners often want to translate word-for-word without på, but in Swedish trycka på is very common with buttons.

Fel here means wrong and is commonly used before a noun in this fixed kind of expression:

• fel knapp = the wrong button
• fel dörr = the wrong door
• fel person = the wrong person

So fel works a bit like an adjective here, but it does not behave exactly like a regular adjective in all situations. You do not usually say felig knapp in this context.

Also, knapp is indefinite here:

• på fel knapp = on the wrong button

That is the natural Swedish phrasing.

Swedish usually says fel + noun in an indefinite-looking form for this idea:

• fel knapp
• fel buss
• fel nummer

Even though English uses the wrong button, Swedish normally does not make the noun definite here.

So:

• på fel knapp = natural
• på fel knappen = not standard Swedish

A more formal or heavier alternative like den felaktiga knappen is possible in some contexts, but it sounds much less natural here.

Väckte is the past tense of väcka, which means wake or wake up someone.

So:

• väcka = to wake someone
• väckte = woke

In this sentence:

• väckte grannen = woke the neighbor

Notice that väcka is usually transitive, meaning it takes an object: you wake someone.

Grannen means the neighbor.

The definite form is used because the sentence refers to a specific neighbor in the situation — most likely the person living nearby whose doorbell or buzzer was rung by mistake.

Compare:

• en granne = a neighbor (any neighbor, not specific)
• grannen = the neighbor (a specific one, understood from context)

In a story like this, grannen sounds very natural.

This sentence tells a completed event in a narrative, so Swedish uses the preterite (simple past):

• kom = came
• tryckte = pressed
• väckte = woke

This is the normal tense for telling a sequence of past events in Swedish. English often does the same:

• When she got to the entrance, she pressed the wrong button and woke the neighbor.

Yes. The structure suggests a sequence:

1. När hon kom till porten — when she arrived at the entrance
2. tryckte hon på fel knapp — she pressed the wrong button
3. och väckte grannen — and woke the neighbor

The last action is presented as the result of pressing the wrong button. So the sentence naturally reads as one event causing the next.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

Nair hohn kom till POR-ten, TRYCK-te hohn poh fehl knapp oh vehk-teh GRAN-nen.

A few notes:

• När sounds roughly like nair
• hon is often pronounced with a long o sound, roughly hoon/hon
• porten has stress on the first syllable: POR-ten
• tryckte has the y sound that English does not really have; learners often approximate it at first
• väckte starts with a vowel sound like eh/ae but rounded
• grannen has stress on GRAN

This is only an approximation. The exact Swedish vowel sounds are different from English ones.

Almost, but not perfectly word-for-word. A very literal version would be:

When she came to the entrance door, pressed she on wrong button and woke the neighbor.

That shows some Swedish structure, but it is not natural English. A natural English translation would be:

When she got to the entrance, she pressed the wrong button and woke the neighbor.

This sentence is a good example of how Swedish and English are similar in meaning but different in word order and some set expressions.