På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde.

Because Swedish follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb must come in the second position.

If you start the sentence with the subject, you get:

• En kudde ligger på stolen vid hennes skrivbord.

Here, En kudde is first, and ligger is second.

But if you move another element to the front for emphasis, such as På stolen vid hennes skrivbord, then the verb still has to stay second:

• På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde.

So after the fronted phrase, Swedish puts the verb before the subject. This is often called inversion.

English sometimes does this in literary style, as in On the chair by her desk lies a pillow, but in normal English we usually say A pillow is lying on the chair by her desk or simply There is a pillow on the chair by her desk.

Stolen is the definite singular form of en stol.

• en stol = a chair
• stolen = the chair

In Swedish, the definite article is usually added as an ending:

• en stol → stolen
• en kudde → kudden

Here, stolen is used because the sentence refers to a specific chair: the chair by her desk.

Vid usually means by, at, or next to / near, depending on context.

So:

• vid hennes skrivbord = by her desk

It tells you the chair is located near the desk.

A learner might compare it with bredvid, which more specifically means beside / right next to.
So:

• vid = by / near / at
• bredvid = beside / next to

In many contexts, vid is a bit broader and less exact than bredvid.

Because in Swedish, when a noun has a possessive before it, you normally do not add the definite ending as well.

So:

• hennes skrivbord = her desk
• not hennes skrivbordet

This is similar to English: we say her desk, not her the desk.

The possessive already makes the noun definite enough.

Compare:

• skrivbord = desk
• skrivbordet = the desk
• hennes skrivbord = her desk

This is a very common question.

Swedish uses sin/sitt/sina for a reflexive possessive, meaning the possession belongs to the subject of the clause.

But in this sentence, the grammatical subject is en kudde:

• På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde.

So the subject is a pillow, not a woman. Because the owner of the desk is not the subject, Swedish uses hennes.

• hennes = her (not reflexive)
• sin/sitt/sina = his/her/its own when referring back to the subject

For example:

• Hon sitter vid sitt skrivbord. = She is sitting at her desk.
  Here hon is the subject, so sitt is correct.

But in your sentence, the subject is en kudde, so sin/sitt would not work.

Swedish often uses position verbs where English simply uses is.

Here, ligger means lies / is lying.

So instead of saying something like A pillow is on the chair, Swedish often prefers:

• En kudde ligger på stolen.

This is very natural in Swedish.

Common Swedish position verbs include:

• ligga = lie, be lying
• stå = stand, be standing
• sitta = sit, be sitting

English often uses be, but Swedish is more specific about the physical position of objects.

Because a pillow is thought of as something that lies rather than stands or sits.

Swedish often chooses the position verb based on how the thing is physically oriented or perceived:

• Boken ligger på bordet. = The book is lying on the table.
• Flaskan står på bordet. = The bottle is standing on the table.
• Tavlan sitter på väggen. = The picture is on the wall.

A pillow on a chair is naturally imagined as lying, so ligger is the usual choice.

Because the pillow is being introduced as new information.

• en kudde = a pillow
• kudden = the pillow

In this sentence, the location comes first, and then the sentence tells us what is there: a pillow. Since it is not assumed to be already known, Swedish uses the indefinite form:

• På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde.

If both speaker and listener already knew which pillow was meant, then kudden could be possible in another context.

Yes, absolutely.

That version is more straightforward and probably easier for a learner:

• En kudde ligger på stolen vid hennes skrivbord.

It has the basic order:

1. subject
2. verb
3. place phrase

The original sentence:

• På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde.

puts the location first for focus or style. It sounds natural, but it is a bit more marked because it highlights where the pillow is.

Both are correct.

Skrivbord is just the basic singular noun form.

The dictionary form is:

• ett skrivbord = a desk

Here it appears after the possessive hennes, so you get:

• hennes skrivbord = her desk

There is no extra article and no special case ending. Modern Swedish does not have the kind of noun case system that German does. For most nouns, what changes is mainly:

• indefinite vs. definite
• singular vs. plural

So here, skrivbord is simply singular and indefinite in form, even though the whole phrase hennes skrivbord is definite in meaning.

It is natural, but it is a little more stylized than the most neutral everyday version.

• En kudde ligger på stolen vid hennes skrivbord. = very neutral
• På stolen vid hennes skrivbord ligger en kudde. = also correct and natural, but with more focus on location

Starting with a place phrase can sound slightly more descriptive or narrative, especially in writing, but it is definitely normal Swedish.

A very literal translation is:

• On the chair by her desk lies a pillow.

That is grammatical English, but it sounds a bit literary.

More natural everyday English would usually be:

• There’s a pillow on the chair by her desk.
• A pillow is lying on the chair by her desk.
• A pillow is on the chair by her desk.

So even though the Swedish sentence is perfectly normal, the closest natural English phrasing may not copy the Swedish structure exactly.