Hon är förkyld igen, så hon har med sig en näsduk och lite hostmedicin till jobbet.

In Swedish, förkyld is a very common adjective meaning having a cold / congested / suffering from a cold. So Hon är förkyld is the natural way to say She has a cold.

Swedish often uses vara + adjective where English uses have + noun.

• Hon är förkyld = She has a cold
• literally: She is cold-infected

You can also say hon har en förkylning, but that sounds more like she has a cold/ a cold infection in a slightly more medical or noun-based way. In everyday speech, är förkyld is usually more natural.

Förkyld means having a cold. It describes a person’s condition.

Related words:

• en förkylning = a cold
• att förkyla sig = to catch a cold / get chilled and become ill

So:

• Hon är förkyld = She has a cold
• Jag blev förkyld = I caught a cold

It is not the same as English cold meaning low temperature. For temperature, Swedish uses kall:

• Det är kallt ute = It is cold outside

Igen means again, and in Swedish it often comes after the adjective or verb phrase it modifies.

So:

• Hon är förkyld igen = She is sick with a cold again

This word order is very normal in Swedish. English and Swedish are similar here, but Swedish often places short adverbs like igen a little later than an English learner might first expect.

Compare:

• Han är sen igen = He is late again
• Jag är trött igen = I am tired again

Here, så means so in the sense of therefore / as a result.

• Hon är förkyld igen, så ... = She has a cold again, so ...

It connects the first clause with the consequence in the second clause.

This is different from other uses of så, which can also mean:

• so = så bra = so good
• like this / like that = gör så här = do it like this

In this sentence, it is clearly the conjunction meaning so.

Ha med sig is a very common Swedish expression meaning to have something with you / to bring something along / to be carrying something with you.

So:

• hon har med sig en näsduk = she has a handkerchief/tissue with her
• more naturally in English here: she has brought a tissue with her

The expression is made up of:

• har = has
• med = with
• sig = herself (reflexive pronoun, matching the subject)

It is best learned as a set expression:

• ha med sig = have with oneself / bring along

Examples:

• Jag har med mig min dator. = I have my computer with me.
• Tog du med dig nycklarna? = Did you bring the keys with you?

Because Swedish uses the reflexive pronoun sig when the object refers back to the subject of the clause.

Here the subject is hon, and the phrase means that she has something with herself. So Swedish uses sig, not henne.

• Hon har med sig en näsduk. = She has a tissue with her.
• sig refers back to hon

This is the same reflexive idea seen in:

• Hon tvättar sig. = She washes herself.
• Han sätter sig. = He sits down.

You would use henne if the pronoun referred to another female person, not back to the subject.

In normal Swedish, the subject is usually stated clearly in each clause, so repeating hon here is natural and expected.

• Hon är förkyld igen, så hon har med sig ...

This works like English:

• She has a cold again, so she is bringing ...

Leaving out the second hon would sound incomplete or non-standard in ordinary Swedish. Swedish does not usually drop subjects the way some other languages do.

Because så here is a coordinating conjunction, not a fronted adverb.

In Swedish main clauses, inversion happens when something other than the subject comes first in the clause:

• I dag har hon med sig en näsduk.
  • I dag comes first, so verb har comes before the subject hon

But with a coordinating conjunction like så, the second clause keeps normal main-clause order:

• ..., så hon har med sig ...
  • subject hon
    • verb har

So this sentence is behaving exactly as expected.

Because näsduk is a countable noun, while hostmedicin is usually treated as an uncountable substance.

• en näsduk = a handkerchief / a tissue
• lite hostmedicin = some cough medicine

You can count näsdukar:

• en näsduk
• två näsdukar

But hostmedicin is usually thought of like medicine or water in English, so Swedish often uses:

• lite hostmedicin = some cough medicine

You would not normally say en hostmedicin if you mean the liquid medicine itself.

Here lite is best translated as some.

• lite hostmedicin = some cough medicine

Literally, lite can mean a little, but in many everyday contexts it works very naturally as some, especially with uncountable nouns.

Compare:

• Jag vill ha lite kaffe. = I’d like some coffee.
• Hon köpte lite bröd. = She bought some bread.

So in this sentence, lite does not strongly emphasize a tiny amount; it just gives an indefinite quantity.

Hostmedicin means cough medicine.

It is a compound noun:

• host- = cough
• medicin = medicine

Swedish very often forms compound nouns as one word, where English would often use two separate words.

Examples:

• hostmedicin = cough medicine
• sjukhus = hospital
• sommarjobb = summer job

So if you see a long Swedish noun, it is often helpful to look for the smaller words inside it.

Because till jobbet means to work / to the workplace and shows direction or destination.

• till jobbet = to work
• på jobbet = at work

In this sentence, the idea is that she is taking these things along to work, so till is the right preposition.

Compare:

• Hon går till jobbet. = She goes to work.
• Hon är på jobbet. = She is at work.

So till focuses on movement toward the workplace, while på focuses on location at the workplace.

Yes, in till jobbet, the noun is in the definite form: jobbet = the job / work / the workplace.

In Swedish, some fixed everyday expressions use the definite form where English does not.

So:

• till jobbet = to work
• literally: to the job/workplace

This is very common and natural Swedish.

Compare:

• Jag är på jobbet. = I’m at work.
• Han åker till skolan. = He goes to school.
• Vi är hemma. = We are at home.

Swedish and English do not always match exactly in article use, so this is something that often just has to be learned phrase by phrase.