Hon erkände att hon var nervös före intervjun, men hon gick dit ändå.

Because the verb is erkänna (to admit / acknowledge), and its past tense is erkände.

This is the usual pattern:

• infinitive: erkänna
• present: erkänner
• past: erkände
• supine: erkänt

So:

• Hon erkänner ... = She admits ...
• Hon erkände ... = She admitted ...

The spelling may look a little irregular at first, but it follows a common Swedish verb pattern.

Att here means that.

So:

• Hon erkände att hon var nervös
  = She admitted that she was nervous

In Swedish, att often introduces a subordinate clause, just like that in English.

Compare:

• Jag vet att han kommer. = I know that he is coming.
• Hon sa att det var sant. = She said that it was true.

In everyday English, that is often omitted, but in Swedish att is very common in this kind of sentence.

Because the sentence is talking about a past situation.

• var = past tense of är (is / am / are)
• är = present tense
• var = past tense

So:

• Hon är nervös. = She is nervous.
• Hon var nervös. = She was nervous.

Since she admitted it afterward or in a past context, Swedish uses var.

Yes, both can often work, but they are used a little differently.

In this sentence:

• före intervjun = before the interview

Före is a preposition, so it is followed by a noun phrase:

• före mötet = before the meeting
• före intervjun = before the interview

Innan is often used before a clause, though it can also be used alone in many contexts:

• innan hon gick dit = before she went there

So a useful rule is:

• före + noun
• innan + clause

That said, Swedish speakers sometimes use innan before a noun too, so you may hear both. But före intervjun is very natural and clear here.

Because it is the definite form: the interview.

Swedish usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word in front.

• en intervju = an interview
• intervjun = the interview

This is one of the biggest differences from English.

More examples:

• en bok = a book

• boken = the book

• ett hus = a house
• huset = the house

So före intervjun literally means before the interview.

Dit means there, but specifically to there or to that place.

It shows movement toward a place.

So:

• hon gick dit = she went there

Compare:

• där = there (location)
• dit = there/to there (direction)

Examples:

• Hon är där. = She is there.
• Hon går dit. = She goes there.

This distinction is very important in Swedish.

Gick is the past tense of gå, which literally means walked, but very often Swedish uses gå in ways where English would simply say go.

So:

• hon gick dit can mean she went there
• it does not always strongly mean that she walked on foot

If you want to be specific about transport, Swedish can use:

• åkte dit = went there / traveled there
• körde dit = drove there
• tog bussen dit = took the bus there

But gick dit is perfectly natural if the focus is simply that she went there.

Ändå means anyway, all the same, or nevertheless.

In this sentence:

• men hon gick dit ändå
• but she went there anyway

It shows contrast: she was nervous, but despite that, she still went.

Other examples:

• Det regnade, men vi gick ut ändå.
  = It was raining, but we went out anyway.

• Han var trött men arbetade ändå.
  = He was tired but worked anyway.

Yes, ändå can sometimes move, but hon gick dit ändå is very natural.

Swedish word order often places short adverbs like this after the verb phrase or near the end of the clause.

Here:

• hon gick dit ändå

This sounds straightforward and idiomatic.

You may also see:

• men ändå gick hon dit

That version gives more emphasis to ändå and feels more like:

• but nevertheless, she went there

So both are possible, but they are not identical in tone.

Because men is a coordinating conjunction, like but in English. It does not trigger the special V2 inversion pattern that many sentence-initial adverbs do.

So after men, Swedish keeps normal main clause word order:

• men hon gick dit ändå

Compare that with a sentence starting with an adverb:

• Sedan gick hon dit.
  = Then she went there.

Here, Sedan comes first, so the verb comes before the subject:

• Sedan gick hon ...

But with men:

• ..., men hon gick ...

No inversion is caused by men.

Yes, but the structure would change.

Original:

• Hon erkände att hon var nervös före intervjun, men hon gick dit ändå.

A version with trots att might be:

• Trots att hon var nervös före intervjun gick hon dit.
• Hon gick dit trots att hon var nervös före intervjun.

Trots att means although / even though / despite the fact that.

The difference is mostly in structure and emphasis:

• men ... ändå = two coordinated ideas, with clear contrast
• trots att = one idea is explicitly subordinate to the other

Both are natural.

Mostly yes. Nervös usually means nervous in the ordinary emotional sense.

Examples:

• Jag är nervös inför provet. = I am nervous about the exam.
• Hon var nervös före intervjun. = She was nervous before the interview.

A small note: in some contexts, English nervous can mean generally anxious, shaky, or tense, and Swedish nervös often overlaps closely with that meaning.

Because Swedish needs the subject inside the subordinate clause too.

So:

• main clause: Hon erkände
• subordinate clause: att hon var nervös

The second hon is required because att hon var nervös is a full clause: that she was nervous.

You cannot normally omit the subject there.

This is the same as standard English:

• She admitted that she was nervous.

Not:

• She admitted that was nervous.

Yes, that is a very natural and accurate translation.

A very close word-for-word mapping is:

• Hon = she
• erkände = admitted
• att = that
• hon var nervös = she was nervous
• före intervjun = before the interview
• men = but
• hon gick dit = she went there
• ändå = anyway

So the literal structure matches English quite well here, which makes this sentence a nice one for learners.

A few things may stand out to English speakers:

• erkände contains ä, which is a front vowel not identical to English a or e
• nervös contains ö, another vowel English does not really have
• ändå also has ä, and the second syllable is stressed clearly enough to hear the word shape

The biggest challenge is usually the vowels:

• ä
• ö

Also, Swedish sentence rhythm is often smoother and lighter than English learners expect, so it helps to listen to native audio and repeat full chunks such as:

• hon erkände att hon var nervös
• men hon gick dit ändå

Learning whole phrases is often easier than focusing on single words only.