Hon skickade en påminnelse i morse eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt vad som stod i avtalet.

In Swedish, you normally need to state the subject explicitly, just like in English.

• Hon = she
• skickade = sent

So Hon skickade means She sent.

Swedish usually does not drop subject pronouns the way some other languages do. A complete sentence normally needs a subject.

Skickade is the preterite (simple past) of skicka = to send.

So:

• skicka = to send
• skickar = sends / is sending
• skickade = sent
• har skickat = has sent

In this sentence, skickade is used because the action happened at a specific time in the past: i morse.

Påminnelse is a noun meaning reminder, and it is a common gender noun in Swedish, so it takes en in the indefinite singular.

• en påminnelse = a reminder
• påminnelsen = the reminder
• påminnelser = reminders
• påminnelserna = the reminders

A learner may also notice that påminnelse is related to the verb påminna = to remind.

I morse is the standard idiomatic way to say this morning when talking about the earlier part of the current day.

So:

• i morse = this morning
• i kväll = tonight / this evening
• i natt = last night / tonight, depending on context

På morgonen means in the morning or during the morning, and it is more general. It does not specifically mean this morning.

Compare:

• Hon skickade en påminnelse i morse. = She sent a reminder this morning.
• Hon brukar skicka påminnelser på morgonen. = She usually sends reminders in the morning.

Eftersom means because or since and introduces the reason.

• Hon skickade en påminnelse i morse eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt...
• She sent a reminder this morning because several colleagues had forgotten...

It is a very common conjunction in Swedish.

Other possibilities include:

• därför att = because
• för att = because / in order to, depending on context

But eftersom is very natural here when giving a reason.

Flera means several, and when Swedish uses words like flera, många, några, you normally do not add an article.

So:

• flera kollegor = several colleagues
• många kollegor = many colleagues
• några kollegor = some colleagues

You would not say en flera kollegor or de flera kollegor here.

Also note:

• kollega = colleague
• kollegor = colleagues

Hade glömt is the past perfect (pluperfect), and it shows that this forgetting happened before the action in the main clause.

Timeline:

1. Several colleagues forgot what was written in the contract.
2. Then she sent a reminder this morning.

So Swedish uses:

• skickade = sent
• hade glömt = had forgotten

This is exactly parallel to English:

• She sent a reminder because several colleagues had forgotten...

If you said glömde, it would sound more like both events are just simple past actions, without clearly showing that the forgetting came first.

This is a very common question.

In Swedish, when you have an embedded question or an indirect clause like what was written..., the structure changes.

Here:

• vad stod i avtalet? = what was written in the contract?
  This is a direct question.

But inside a larger sentence, Swedish often uses:

• vad som stod i avtalet = what was written in the contract

So:

• De glömde vad som stod i avtalet. = They forgot what was written in the contract.

The som appears because vad is the thing being referred to, while som helps introduce the clause that describes it.

This structure is especially common after verbs like:

• veta = know
• glömma = forget
• minnas = remember
• förstå = understand

Yes, stå literally means stand, and stod is its past tense.

But Swedish often uses stå in the sense of be written or be stated, especially when talking about text in documents, signs, messages, and books.

So here:

• vad som stod i avtalet = what was written in the contract / what the contract said

Examples:

• Det står i boken. = It says so in the book.
• Vad stod det i mejlet? = What did the email say?
• Det stod att mötet var inställt. = It said that the meeting was cancelled.

So this is a very important idiomatic use of stå.

Avtalet is the definite singular form of avtal.

• ett avtal = a contract / an agreement
• avtalet = the contract / the agreement

It is definite because the speaker is referring to a specific contract that both speaker and listener are expected to know about.

Also note that avtal is an ett-word, not an en-word:

• ett avtal
• avtalet

And i is the normal preposition for in here:

• i avtalet = in the contract

Because eftersom introduces a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses in Swedish do not follow the same V2 word order rule as main clauses.

Main clause:

• Hon skickade en påminnelse i morse

Subordinate clause:

• eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt vad som stod i avtalet

In the subordinate clause, the normal order is:

subordinating conjunction + subject + verb

So:

• eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt...

not:

• eftersom hade flera kollegor glömt...

That second version would be wrong.

Yes. You could also say:

Eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt vad som stod i avtalet, skickade hon en påminnelse i morse.

That means the same thing, but now the reason comes first.

Notice what happens in the main clause after the subordinate clause:

• ...skickade hon...

The verb comes before the subject because the sentence now begins with something other than the subject. That is the Swedish V2 rule in action.

Usually yes, but the exact tone depends on context.

En påminnelse can be:

• a reminder email
• a reminder note
• a reminder message
• a payment reminder
• a general reminder

In a workplace sentence like this, it most likely means a reminder message or email.

Swedish also has related expressions like:

• skicka en påminnelse = send a reminder
• få en påminnelse = receive a reminder
• påminna någon om något = remind someone about something

Yes: it is a very typical Swedish sentence with a main clause followed by a reason clause.

Structure:

• Hon skickade en påminnelse i morse

  • subject: Hon
  • verb: skickade
  • object: en påminnelse
  • time expression: i morse

• eftersom flera kollegor hade glömt vad som stod i avtalet

  • conjunction: eftersom
  • subject: flera kollegor
  • verb phrase: hade glömt
  • object/content clause: vad som stod i avtalet

So the sentence is a good example of how Swedish combines:

• simple past in the main clause,
• past perfect in the subordinate clause,
• and an embedded vad som... clause.