Vi gick längs gatan, och caféet låg mittemot stationen.

Because gå is an irregular verb.

• Infinitive: gå = to go, to walk
• Present: går
• Past: gick
• Supine: gått

So Vi gick means we walked or we went.

A native English speaker often expects a regular past ending, but many very common Swedish verbs are irregular, and gå is one of them.

Längs means along.

So:

• Vi gick längs gatan = We walked along the street

It is a preposition, and it is used before a noun phrase:

• längs vägen = along the road
• längs kusten = along the coast

It describes movement or position following the line of something.

Gatan is the definite singular form of gata.

• en gata = a street
• gatan = the street

In the sentence, the speaker means a specific street, not just any street, so Swedish uses the definite form.

This is very common in Swedish: instead of a separate word like the, Swedish usually adds the definite ending to the noun itself.

Yes, but the meaning is slightly different.

• gå längs gatan = walk along the street
• gå på gatan = walk on the street

Längs emphasizes direction along the length of the street.
På just says you were on the street.

So in many situations both are possible, but längs gatan is more precise if you want to stress movement along it.

Because café is an ett-word in Swedish.

• ett café = a café
• caféet = the café

For many ett-words, the definite singular ending is -et.

So:

• ett hus → huset
• ett café → caféet

The accent mark in café is kept in the definite form.

This is a very common Swedish pattern.

Swedish often prefers verbs like:

• ligga = lie
• stå = stand
• sitta = sit

when talking about where something is located.

So:

• Caféet låg mittemot stationen = The café was opposite the station

For buildings and places, ligga is often the natural verb for location.

You can sometimes use vara, but ligga sounds more idiomatic here. English usually just uses be, but Swedish is more specific.

Also note:

• infinitive: ligga
• present: ligger
• past: låg

Mittemot means opposite or across from.

In this sentence it works directly with the noun:

• mittemot stationen = opposite the station

You do not need another preposition such as från or av.

Examples:

• Skolan ligger mittemot biblioteket.
• Han bor mittemot oss.

It can also be used on its own if the location is already clear:

• Caféet låg mittemot. = The café was opposite / across the way.

Because station is an en-word, and here it is definite singular.

• en station = a station
• stationen = the station

So the pattern is:

• en noun → definite -en
• ett noun → often definite -et

That is why you get:

• gatan from en gata
• stationen from en station
• caféet from ett café

Both parts of the sentence are main clauses:

1. Vi gick längs gatan
2. caféet låg mittemot stationen

They are joined by och = and.

In both clauses, Swedish keeps normal main-clause word order:

• subject + verb

So:

• Vi gick
• caféet låg

This is important because some learners expect a different order after a connector. But och simply joins two equal clauses; it does not change the basic word order.

Not always.

In Swedish, a comma before och is often optional when two main clauses are joined. So both of these are possible:

• Vi gick längs gatan, och caféet låg mittemot stationen.
• Vi gick längs gatan och caféet låg mittemot stationen.

The comma can make the sentence easier to read, especially when the clauses are fairly long or clearly separate ideas. But in everyday Swedish, many writers would leave it out.

The accent mark shows that the stress falls on the final é sound in café.

So café is pronounced roughly like ka-FEH, and caféet is roughly ka-FEH-et.

The accent mark helps distinguish the pronunciation and reflects that the word is borrowed. In modern Swedish, you may also sometimes see the spelling kafé, especially in more Swedish-style spelling, but café is very common.