Kan du komma upp nu?

Because this is a yes/no question in Swedish.

In a normal statement, Swedish usually has:

• Du kan komma upp nu. = You can come up now.

In a yes/no question, the verb comes first:

• Kan du komma upp nu? = Can you come up now?

This is very similar to English:

• You can come up now.
• Can you come up now?

So the word order change is one of the main things happening here.

Kan is the present tense of kunna, which means can / to be able to.

Here:

• kunna = infinitive
• kan = present tense

So kan du literally means can you / are you able to.

Like English can, it is a modal verb, which means it is followed by another verb in the infinitive.

Because after a modal verb like kan, the next verb stays in the infinitive.

So:

• kan komma = can come
• not kan kommer

This works much like English:

• I can come
• not I can comes

Other Swedish modal verbs work the same way:

• Jag vill komma. = I want to come.
• Du måste gå. = You must go.
• Hon ska läsa. = She will/is going to read.

So in Kan du komma upp nu?, komma is in the correct infinitive form.

Upp usually means up, but in Swedish it often works as a particle together with a verb.

So komma upp is a common expression. Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• come up
• come upstairs
• come up here
• get up to where the speaker is

In many cases, upp adds the sense of upward movement or movement to a higher place.

This is similar to English phrasal verbs:

• come up
• sit down
• go out

So you should often learn komma upp as a unit, not just komma + upp separately.

Not always.

Very often, yes, it is physical:

• coming upstairs
• coming up to a room
• moving upward toward the speaker

But in other contexts, komma upp can also have extended meanings, such as:

• Det kom upp en fråga. = A question came up.
• Solen kommer upp. = The sun comes up.

In Kan du komma upp nu?, the most natural reading is usually physical movement: someone is being asked to come up, often upstairs or up to where the speaker is.

Nu means now, and putting it at the end is very natural in Swedish.

So:

• Kan du komma upp nu? = Can you come up now?

Swedish often places time words like nu, idag, snart, etc. in positions that sound natural in the sentence, and sentence-final nu is very common in speech.

You may also see other placements in different contexts, but here the end position is completely normal and idiomatic.

It is neutral and normal, but because it uses du, it is the ordinary way to address one person in modern Swedish.

In modern Swedish, du is used in most situations, including many that would be more formal in some other languages. So this sentence can be used:

• with a friend
• with a family member
• with a colleague
• often even with someone you do not know well

The level of politeness depends more on tone of voice and context than on pronouns.

For example:

• Kan du komma upp nu? can sound friendly, neutral, impatient, or caring depending on how you say it.

Yes, you could say Kan du komma nu?

The difference is that upp adds a more specific direction or location.

• Kan du komma nu? = Can you come now?
• Kan du komma upp nu? = Can you come up now?

So if someone is downstairs and you are upstairs, upp is important because it tells them where to come.

Without upp, the sentence is more general.

A careful approximate pronunciation is:

kahn du KOM-ma upp nuu

A few helpful points:

• kan sounds roughly like kahn
• du often sounds like doo, but in natural speech it may be weaker
• komma has stress on the first syllable: KOM-ma
• upp has a short vowel and a strong p sound at the end
• nu is roughly like new in many accents, though not exactly

In connected speech, Swedish can sound smoother than the spelling suggests, and some sounds may be reduced a little.

Normally, no.

Swedish usually requires the subject to be expressed, so:

• Kan du komma upp nu? is correct.
• Kan komma upp nu? is usually not a normal full sentence.

Unlike some languages, Swedish does not usually drop subject pronouns in ordinary sentences.

So du is necessary here.

Only that Kan is capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence.

Swedish does not capitalize ordinary nouns the way German does.

So:

• Kan du komma upp nu? is normal.
• kan du komma upp nu? would only be used if it came after something else and was not sentence-initial.

Yes, definitely.

Even though kan literally relates to ability, sentences with kan du ... ? are very often used as polite requests.

So depending on context, this can mean:

• Are you able to come up now?
• Can you come up now?
• Could you come up now?

English does the same thing with Can you ... ?

So learners should remember that this structure is often about requesting something, not just asking about physical ability.

The statement version is:

Du kan komma upp nu.

That means:

• You can come up now.

This is useful for seeing the word order difference:

• Statement: Du kan komma upp nu.
• Question: Kan du komma upp nu?

So the main change is that the finite verb kan moves to the front in the yes/no question.