Jag lägger min lunchlåda på diskbänken innan jag går till jobbet.

Lägger is the present tense form of the verb lägga.

• lägga = infinitive, to put / to lay
• lägger = present tense, put / am putting

So:

• Jag lägger min lunchlåda ... = I put my lunch box ...

A quick pattern:

• att lägga = to put
• jag lägger = I put
• jag lade / la = I put (past)
• jag har lagt = I have put

The spelling changes because many Swedish verbs do not keep exactly the same form when conjugated.

Lägga usually means to lay / put something down, especially when something ends up in a lying or resting position.

In this sentence, the speaker is placing the lunch box on the kitchen counter, so lägger sounds natural.

Swedish often makes finer distinctions than English with verbs like put:

• lägga = lay/put down
• ställa = set/stand upright
• sätta = set/place, often in a seated or attached position
• placera = place/position, more formal or neutral

In everyday speech, Swedes sometimes use these very naturally according to how the object ends up. A lunch box on a counter can easily be described with lägga.

Because in Swedish, when you use a possessive like min, din, hans, hennes, vår, etc., the noun usually stays in the indefinite form.

So:

• min lunchlåda = my lunch box
• not min lunchlådan

Compare:

• en lunchlåda = a lunch box
• lunchlådan = the lunch box
• min lunchlåda = my lunch box

This is a very important Swedish pattern:

• min bok = my book
• hennes bil = her car
• vårt hus = our house

Not:

• min boken
• hennes bilen
• vårt huset

Lunchlåda is a compound noun:

• lunch = lunch
• låda = box

So literally it is lunch box.

Swedish forms compounds very freely, much like English. Instead of writing two separate words, Swedish usually writes them as one word:

• lunchlåda = lunch box
• diskbänk = kitchen counter / sink counter
• arbetsplats = workplace

This is one of the most common features of Swedish vocabulary.

Diskbänk means something like kitchen counter, often specifically the counter area by the sink.

The -en at the end makes it definite:

• en diskbänk = a counter
• diskbänken = the counter

In Swedish, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun:

• en bok → boken = the book
• en stol → stolen = the chair
• en diskbänk → diskbänken = the counter

So på diskbänken means on the counter.

På means on here.

Use på because the lunch box is being placed on top of a surface.

• på bordet = on the table
• på golvet = on the floor
• på diskbänken = on the counter

If the object were inside something, Swedish would more likely use i:

• i väskan = in the bag
• i kylskåpet = in the fridge

So på diskbänken is the natural choice because a counter is treated as a surface.

Because after innan (before), Swedish uses a normal subordinate clause word order.

Here the subordinate clause is:

• innan jag går till jobbet = before I go to work

The subject comes before the verb:

• jag går

That is normal in a subordinate clause introduced by innan.

Main clause:

• Jag lägger min lunchlåda på diskbänken

Subordinate clause:

• innan jag går till jobbet

So the full sentence is structured as:

• [Main clause] + [subordinate clause]

Yes. Swedish often uses the present tense for:

• habits
• routines
• near-future actions
• things that are generally true

So innan jag går till jobbet can mean:

• before I go to work
• before I leave for work

This is completely normal. English does something similar in subordinate time clauses:

• before I go to work
• not usually before I will go to work

So the Swedish present tense here matches a common English pattern quite well.

In Swedish, gå till jobbet is the normal idiomatic way to say go to work.

Literally, jobbet is the definite form of jobb:

• ett jobb = a job
• jobbet = the job / work

But in this expression, jobbet often corresponds to English work, even though English does not use the.

So:

• jag går till jobbet = I go to work

This is something learners simply need to get used to: Swedish sometimes uses a definite noun where English uses no article.

Similar everyday expressions exist in many languages.

They mean different things:

• till jobbet = to work (direction, movement toward)
• på jobbet = at work (location)

Examples:

• Jag går till jobbet. = I go to work.
• Jag är på jobbet. = I am at work.

So in your sentence, går till jobbet is correct because the speaker is moving toward work, not already there.

Yes, absolutely.

You can say:

• Innan jag går till jobbet lägger jag min lunchlåda på diskbänken.

That means the same thing, but when the subordinate clause comes first, the main clause follows the Swedish V2 rule: the verb comes in second position.

So after the fronted clause:

• Innan jag går till jobbet
  the main clause becomes:
• lägger jag min lunchlåda på diskbänken

Not:

• Innan jag går till jobbet jag lägger ...

This is a very important Swedish word-order pattern.

Not necessarily.

Gå literally means go or walk, depending on context. In the phrase gå till jobbet, it often just means go to work, not strictly walk to work.

If you specifically want to say you are walking on foot, context usually makes that clear, or you can use a more explicit expression if needed.

So in this sentence, går till jobbet should usually be understood as the normal English go to work.

That is the normal order in a simple Swedish main clause:

• Subject + verb + object + place/time/etc.

So:

• Jag = subject
• lägger = verb
• min lunchlåda = direct object
• på diskbänken = place expression

This is very similar to English:

• I put my lunch box on the counter

So the Swedish word order here is quite straightforward.

A careful approximate pronunciation could be written like this:

• Yahg LEG-er min LUNSH-loh-da paw DISK-ben-ken IN-nan yahg gor till YOB-bet

A few useful points:

• j in jag sounds like English y
• ä in lägger sounds somewhat like the e in bed, though not exactly
• å in låda is a long vowel, somewhat like aw in many English approximations
• g in jobbet is pronounced like English y, so jobbet sounds roughly like yobbet
• stress usually falls on the first syllable of Swedish words:
  • LÄGger
  • LUNCHlåda
  • DISKbänken
  • JOBbet

Pronunciation varies by region, but those points will help you sound much more natural.