Hon vill hänga en tavla över soffan, men jag tycker att väggen ser bättre ut utan en tavla.

Because hon is the subject form of she, while henne is the object form of her.

• Hon vill... = She wants...
• Jag ser henne = I see her

In this sentence, hon is the person doing the action, so Swedish uses hon.

Here hänga en tavla means to hang a picture / painting on the wall.

Swedish can use both:

• hänga en tavla
• hänga upp en tavla

Both are natural. Hänga upp can feel a little more explicit, like put up / hang up, but hänga en tavla is very common and idiomatic when talking about wall art.

Tavla usually means a painting, picture, or framed artwork hanging on a wall.

It is broader than just painting, but it is not exactly the same as every kind of picture in English.

A useful comparison:

• tavla = a picture/painting/artwork, often framed and meant for display
• bild = image, picture, photo, illustration in a broader sense

So in this sentence, en tavla is best understood as a picture / painting on the wall.

Över means over or above, and soffan means the sofa.

• soffa = sofa
• soffan = the sofa

So över soffan means above the sofa.

The -n ending is the Swedish definite article. Instead of using a separate word like the, Swedish often adds the definiteness to the noun itself.

Because men is a coordinating conjunction meaning but. It links two main clauses, but it does not force the verb to come before the subject.

So this is normal:

• Hon vill hänga en tavla..., men jag tycker...

The second clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• jag = subject
• tycker = finite verb

You get inversion in Swedish when something other than the subject is placed first, for example:

• I dag tycker jag att... = Today I think that...

But after men, no inversion is required just because men is there.

Jag tycker att means I think that in the sense of I feel / I am of the opinion that.

That is why it is used here: the speaker is giving an opinion about what looks better.

• tycka att = think, feel, be of the opinion
• tro att = believe, suppose, think something is probably true

So:

• Jag tycker att väggen ser bättre ut... = an opinion about appearance
• Jag tror att hon kommer snart = a belief or guess about what will happen

In this sentence, tycker is the natural choice because the speaker is making an aesthetic judgment.

Because the sentence refers to a specific wall: the wall above the sofa that both speakers already have in mind.

• en vägg = a wall
• väggen = the wall

Swedish often uses the definite form when the thing is specific from the context, even if English might not always emphasize it as strongly.

Here, väggen means the wall we’re talking about.

Because se ut is a particle verb meaning look / appear.

Its parts often split up in a sentence:

• ser = the finite verb form of se
• ut = the particle

So:

• väggen ser bättre ut = the wall looks better

This is very common in Swedish. Compare:

• Hon ser trött ut = She looks tired
• Det ser bra ut = It looks good

The particle ut often comes later in the clause, after words like bättre.

Because after att, Swedish has a subordinate clause, and the normal order is subject + verb.

So:

• att väggen ser bättre ut
  = that the wall looks better

This is the standard pattern.

A useful thing to remember is that in subordinate clauses, Swedish puts sentence adverbs like inte before the verb:

• att väggen inte ser bättre ut = that the wall does not look better

That helps show that att väggen ser bättre ut is behaving like a subordinate clause.

In this sentence, utan en tavla is the most natural way to say without a picture / painting.

Because tavla is a countable noun, Swedish normally uses the article when talking about one item:

• utan en tavla = without a picture/painting

Utan tavla is possible in some contexts, but it sounds less neutral here and more like a label, shorthand, or a very general style of expression.

Compare:

• utan en tavla = without a picture
• utan tavlor = without pictures / paintings
• utan socker = without sugar

With uncountable nouns like socker, no article is needed. With a singular countable noun like tavla, the article is usually expected.

Swedish often repeats the noun when it helps keep the contrast clear.

Here the contrast is:

• Hon vill hänga en tavla...
• ...utan en tavla

Repeating en tavla makes the speaker’s opinion very explicit: the wall looks better without a picture.

A pronoun could be possible in some contexts, but repeating the noun is very natural and clear in Swedish, especially when contrasting with versus without something.