Om vi går nu, slipper vi stå i kö på apoteket.

Because Swedish uses verb-second word order in main clauses.

The sentence starts with the subordinate clause Om vi går nu = If we leave/go now. After that clause, the main clause begins, and in a Swedish main clause the finite verb usually comes in second position.

So:

• Om vi går nu, slipper vi stå i kö på apoteket.

Not:

• Om vi går nu, vi slipper ...

This is very common in Swedish. Compare:

• I dag jobbar jag. = Today I am working.
• Om det regnar, stannar vi hemma. = If it rains, we stay home.

So the inversion happens because the sentence does not begin with the subject vi.

Slipper is the present tense of slippa, which means to avoid, to not have to, or to get out of doing something unpleasant.

In this sentence:

• slipper vi stå i kö = we avoid having to stand in line / we won’t have to stand in line

It often has the feeling of being spared something inconvenient.

Examples:

• Jag slipper jobba i morgon. = I don’t have to work tomorrow.
• Du slipper betala. = You don’t have to pay.

So here the idea is that leaving now saves us from the inconvenience of waiting in line.

Because after slippa, Swedish normally uses the bare infinitive.

So:

• slippa stå
• slippa vänta
• slippa betala

not:

• slippa att stå

This is similar to some English verbs that are followed directly by another verb, although the exact pattern is different.

In this sentence:

• slipper vi stå i kö = we avoid standing in line / we won’t have to stand in line

So stå is the infinitive form, and it appears without att.

Literally, stå i kö means stand in a queue.

Idiomatic meaning:

• to stand in line
• to wait in line

This is a very common Swedish expression.

Breakdown:

• stå = stand
• i = in
• kö = queue / line

Examples:

• Vi fick stå i kö länge. = We had to stand in line for a long time.
• Det är många som står i kö. = There are many people waiting in line.

So even if people are not literally standing the whole time, stå i kö is the normal expression.

In Swedish, certain places are commonly used with på where English would often use at or sometimes in.

So:

• på apoteket = at the pharmacy
• på banken = at the bank
• på sjukhuset = at the hospital

This does not always mean physically on something. It is just the normal preposition used with many institutions and locations.

So in this sentence:

• stå i kö på apoteket = stand in line at the pharmacy

Using i apoteket would sound more like emphasizing being physically inside the pharmacy, and it is not the natural choice here.

Because apoteket is the definite form of apotek.

• ett apotek = a pharmacy
• apoteket = the pharmacy

Swedish usually adds the definite article as a suffix on the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• bok = book
• boken = the book

and

• hus = house
• huset = the house

Since apotek is a neuter noun (ett word), the definite singular ending is -et.

Går is the present tense of gå, which often means go or leave, not just walk.

In many everyday contexts, Swedish uses gå where English might say:

• go
• leave
• sometimes walk

In this sentence:

• Om vi går nu most naturally means If we leave now or If we go now

It does not necessarily emphasize walking on foot. It is more about departing now.

Examples:

• Jag går nu. = I’m leaving now.
• Ska vi gå? = Shall we go?

So yes, gå can mean walk, but here it is better understood as leave/go.

This is very normal in Swedish. Swedish often uses the present tense for future meaning when the context makes the future clear.

So:

• Om vi går nu = If we leave now
• slipper vi stå i kö = we won’t have to stand in line

Both verbs are present tense in form:

• går
• slipper

But the meaning is future because it is a real future condition: if we do this now, then this result will happen.

English does something similar in conditional sentences:

• If we leave now, we won’t have to wait.

You do not say If we will leave now in normal English. Swedish works similarly here.

Very often, yes, but not always.

In this sentence, om clearly means if:

• Om vi går nu = If we leave now

But om can also appear in other uses, for example:

• Jag vet inte om han kommer. = I don’t know if he is coming / whether he is coming
• en bok om Stockholm = a book about Stockholm

So om can mean:

• if
• whether
• about

You have to decide from context. In your sentence, it is definitely the conditional if.

Yes. Köa is a verb meaning to queue or to stand in line.

So you could also say:

• Om vi går nu, slipper vi köa på apoteket.

That means almost the same thing.

Difference in feel:

• stå i kö is very common and transparent
• köa is also common, a bit more compact

Both are natural. A learner will probably hear stå i kö very often in everyday speech.

Kö is pronounced roughly like a vowel sound that English does not really have. It is close to a long ö sound, something like saying ay with rounded lips, but that is only an approximation.

Important points:

• k is pronounced as a soft k before ö
• so kö sounds more like shö than kö with a hard k

Very roughly for an English speaker, it can sound a bit like:

• shur or sheu

but neither is exact.

So:

• kö = a soft initial consonant + the Swedish ö vowel

If pronunciation matters for you, this is a word worth listening to rather than relying on English-style spelling.

Not in this context.

Grammatically, går is the present tense and can sometimes correspond to go, leave, or walk, but here the whole sentence strongly points to the meaning leave now.

Why?

Because the result clause is:

• slipper vi stå i kö på apoteket = we avoid standing in line at the pharmacy

That only makes sense if gå nu means leave now / go now.

So the sentence is understood as:

• If we leave now, we won’t have to stand in line at the pharmacy.

Context usually tells you which sense of gå is intended.

It has two parts:

1. Om vi går nu

   • subordinate clause
   • If we leave now

2. slipper vi stå i kö på apoteket

   • main clause
   • we won’t have to stand in line at the pharmacy

So the overall pattern is:

• If + condition, result

More literally:

• If we go now, avoid-we stand in queue at the pharmacy

But in natural English:

• If we leave now, we won’t have to stand in line at the pharmacy.

This is a very useful Swedish sentence pattern to learn because it combines:

• a conditional clause with om
• main-clause inversion
• slippa
  • bare infinitive
• the expression stå i kö