Hon lyssnar med örat mot dörren och tror att någon kommer.

A fairly literal breakdown is:

• Hon = she
• lyssnar = listens / is listening
• med = with
• örat = the ear
• mot = against / toward
• dörren = the door
• och = and
• tror = thinks / believes
• att = that
• någon = someone
• kommer = comes / is coming

So the structure is very close to:

She listens with the ear against the door and thinks that someone is coming.

Natural English usually says with her ear against the door.

Because lyssna means to listen, not just to hear.

• lyssna = actively paying attention to sound
• höra = hearing something, whether you try to or not

So:

• Hon lyssnar ... = She is listening ...
• Hon hör ... = She hears ...

In this sentence, she is deliberately putting her ear to the door and trying to catch a sound, so lyssnar is the natural verb.

It means with her ear against the door.

The phrase has two parts:

• med örat = with the ear
• mot dörren = against the door

Here mot does not just mean toward in a directional sense. It can also mean against, especially when something is touching or pressed toward a surface.

So med örat mot dörren gives the image of someone physically leaning in and listening through the door.

Because Swedish often uses the definite form with body parts in situations like this.

So instead of saying the equivalent of with a/her ear, Swedish very naturally says:

• med örat = literally with the ear

Using ett öra would sound odd here, because she is not using just any random ear. It is a specific, understood ear belonging to her.

If you wanted to emphasize one of her two ears, you could say something like:

• med ena örat mot dörren = with one ear against the door

But in the original sentence, örat is the normal choice.

This is very common in Swedish. When the owner is already obvious, especially with body parts and sometimes clothing, Swedish often uses the definite noun instead of a possessive.

So Swedish prefers:

• med örat mot dörren

rather than:

• med hennes öra mot dörren
• med sitt öra mot dörren

Those versions are possible in some contexts, but they sound much less natural here.

English usually needs her ear, but Swedish often does not.

Because it is a specific door in the situation.

• dörren = the door
• en dörr = a door

The sentence describes a particular scene: she is listening at a certain door. That is why Swedish uses the definite form dörren.

Here att means that.

So:

• tror att någon kommer = thinks that someone is coming

This is not the infinitive marker to, even though att can also have that role in other sentences.

Compare:

• Jag vill lyssna = I want to listen
• Jag tror att någon kommer = I think that someone is coming

So the function of att depends on the sentence.

Because att någon kommer is a subordinate clause introduced by att.

The clause is:

• någon = subject
• kommer = verb

So the order is simply subject + verb.

This may not look strange to an English speaker, but it is useful to notice that Swedish treats clauses after att as subordinate clauses, not as main clauses.

A helpful point is that Swedish main clauses usually follow V2 word order, but subordinate clauses do not.

For example:

• Hon tror att någon kommer.
• Hon tror att någon inte kommer.

Notice how inte would come before the verb in the subordinate clause:

• att någon inte kommer

That is a classic sign that it is a subordinate clause.

Någon means someone here.

It is the common Swedish word for an unspecified person:

• någon = someone / anyone
• något = something
• några = some / a few

In this sentence:

• någon kommer = someone is coming

Because it is about a person, någon is the right form.

In this sentence, kommer most naturally means is coming, but Swedish present tense can often cover several ideas that English separates.

So någon kommer can mean:

• someone is coming
• someone comes
• sometimes someone will come, depending on context

Here, because she is listening at the door, the most natural interpretation is immediate and ongoing:

• she thinks someone is coming

So even though the verb is present tense, the meaning is very close to English is coming.

Because the same subject can be left out in the second part when it is understood.

So:

• Hon lyssnar ... och tror ...

means:

• She listens ... and thinks ...

This works just like English. You can repeat the subject, but you usually do not need to.

• Hon lyssnar ... och hon tror ...

That version is possible, but it sounds a bit more marked or emphatic. The original sentence is smoother and more neutral.

In everyday spoken Swedish, people do sometimes leave out att after verbs like tror.

So you may hear:

• Hon tror någon kommer.

But in standard written Swedish, att is the normal and safest choice:

• Hon tror att någon kommer.

So for learners, it is best to use att here unless you are specifically trying to sound informal and conversational.

A simple guide is:

• Hon — roughly like hohn
• lyssnar — LYSS-nar
• med — mehd
• örat — EU-rat or UR-rat depending on accent
• mot — moht
• dörren — DUR-ren or DEUHR-ren depending on accent
• och — often a short å-like sound in normal speech
• tror — troor
• att — short aht
• någon — NOH-gon
• kommer — KOM-mer

The hardest sounds for many English speakers are:

• y in lyssnar: a rounded vowel that English does not really have
• ö in örat and dörren: also a Swedish vowel that may feel unfamiliar

The main stress in the sentence falls naturally on content words like lyssnar, örat, dörren, tror, någon, and kommer.