Efter några minuter slutade såret att blöda, och sedan lade mamman lite salva på det.

This is because Swedish main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must come in the second position.

• Efter några minuter = first element
• slutade = finite verb, so it must come second
• såret = subject, which comes after the verb here

So:

• Såret slutade att blöda efter några minuter.
• Efter några minuter slutade såret att blöda.

Both are correct, but the word order changes because the sentence starts with a time expression.

It means after a few minutes.

• efter = after
• några = some / a few
• minuter = minutes

A native English speaker should notice that Swedish does not use an article here. You simply say några minuter, not something like en några minuter.

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

• ett sår = a wound

• såret = the wound

• en mamma = a mother
• mamman = the mother

So instead of using a separate word like English the, Swedish often adds -en, -n, or -et to the noun.

This is the pattern sluta (att) + infinitive, which means to stop doing something.

So:

• slutade = stopped
• att blöda = bleeding / to bleed

Literally, Swedish says something like stopped to bleed, but in natural English we translate it as stopped bleeding.

Also, in modern Swedish, the att is often omitted:

• såret slutade att blöda
• såret slutade blöda

Both are used, and both are correct.

Blöda is the infinitive form of the verb, meaning to bleed.

You often see the infinitive after att:

• att blöda = to bleed
• att äta = to eat
• att sova = to sleep

So in this sentence, blöda stays in the infinitive because it follows att.

Yes. Lade is the past tense of lägga, which means to lay / put / place.

• lägga = to put, lay
• lade = put, laid

So:

• mamman lade lite salva på det = the mother put a little ointment on it

A very common learner confusion is lägga vs ligga:

• lägga = to lay/put something somewhere
  
  • transitive: it takes an object
• ligga = to lie / be lying
  
  • intransitive: no direct object

Here the mother is actively putting ointment somewhere, so lägga is the correct verb.

Yes, very often you can.

For lägga, both lade and la are used as past tense forms.

• mamman lade lite salva på det
• mamman la lite salva på det

Lade may sound a bit more formal or standard in writing, while la is very common in speech and informal language.

Because salva here is being treated like an uncountable substance, similar to English ointment.

• lite salva = a little ointment / some ointment

If you said en salva, it would sound more like one salve/ointment item or a specific unit, which is not the natural idea here. The sentence is talking about an amount of ointment, not one countable object.

Also, lite does not change for gender here, so it stays lite even though salva is an en-word.

Det refers back to såret.

• ett sår = a wound
• because sår is an ett-word, the pronoun is det

So:

• på det = on it
• det = the wound

Swedish often uses a pronoun instead of repeating the noun, just like English does.

Here sedan means then or after that.

So this part:

• och sedan lade mamman ...
  means
• and then the mother put ...

Yes, sedan and sen are closely related. In many situations:

• sedan = a bit more formal/full form
• sen = very common in speech and informal writing

In this sentence, sedan works nicely in standard written Swedish.

Because Swedish builds this idea more directly.

English says:

• the wound stopped bleeding

Swedish says:

• såret slutade att blöda

There is no need for any extra pronoun or filler word. The subject såret connects directly with the verb slutade, followed by the infinitive phrase att blöda.

This is a very normal Swedish structure:

• Han slutade att prata. = He stopped talking.
• Barnet slutade att gråta. = The child stopped crying.