Moster undrade om barnen fick äta fler nötter, eller om de redan var mätta.

Moster means maternal aunt — your mother’s sister.

Swedish makes a distinction that English usually does not:

• moster = mother’s sister
• faster = father’s sister

So in this sentence, moster is not just any aunt, but specifically one from the mother’s side.

Both can relate to asking, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

• undrade = wondered / asked oneself / wanted to know
• frågade = asked

In this sentence, Moster undrade om ... has the sense of Aunt wondered whether... or Aunt asked whether...

So undrade can sound a little softer or more indirect than frågade. It often introduces a thought, uncertainty, or polite question.

Here, om means if or whether.

So:

• undrade om barnen fick äta fler nötter = wondered whether the children were allowed to eat more nuts

Swedish om can mean different things in different contexts:

• if/whether
• about
• in case in some expressions

In this sentence, both instances of om mean whether:

• om barnen fick äta fler nötter
• om de redan var mätta

Because Swedish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

• barn = children / child depending on context
• barnen = the children

This -en ending is the definite plural here.

So instead of saying the children with a separate word, Swedish says children-the, in effect: barnen.

Fick is the past tense of få, and with an infinitive it often expresses permission, opportunity, or sometimes managed to / got to.

So:

• fick äta = were allowed to eat, got to eat, or sometimes simply could eat, depending on context

In this sentence, the most natural sense is probably:

• were allowed to eat more nuts

This is different from the basic meaning of få = get / receive.

Compare:

• Jag fick en bok. = I got a book.
• Jag fick läsa boken. = I was allowed to read the book.

Because nötter is a countable plural noun: nuts.

In Swedish:

• fler is used with countable nouns
• mer is used with uncountable nouns

So:

• fler nötter = more nuts
• mer mat = more food

Since individual nuts can be counted, fler is the correct choice.

Because the sentence means more nuts, not more of the nuts.

• nötter = nuts
• nötterna = the nuts

With fler, Swedish normally uses the indefinite plural when talking about additional items in general:

• fler nötter = more nuts

If you said fler av nötterna, that would mean something like more of the nuts from a specific known group.

Because after om, Swedish uses subordinate clause word order.

In a subordinate clause, sentence adverbs like redan usually come before the finite verb.

So:

• de redan var mätta = literally they already were full

This is normal Swedish subordinate clause order:

• subject + sentence adverb + finite verb + complement

Compare:

• Main clause: De var redan mätta.
• Subordinate clause: ... om de redan var mätta.

This is a very important Swedish pattern.

For the same reason: this is a subordinate clause.

In Swedish, words like redan, inte, alltid, ofta usually come before the finite verb in subordinate clauses.

So:

• om de redan var mätta
• om de inte var mätta

But in a main clause, the finite verb normally comes earlier because of the V2 rule:

• De var redan mätta.
• De var inte mätta.

So the position of redan helps show that this is a subordinate clause.

Here, de means they, because it is the subject of var.

• de var mätta = they were full

In spoken Swedish, de and dem are often both pronounced dom, which can confuse learners.

Written standard Swedish:

• de = they
• dem = them

So in this sentence, de is correct because the clause means they were already full.

Because the adjective must agree with the noun/pronoun it describes.

Here, de refers to barnen, which is plural, so the adjective takes the plural form:

• mätt = full (common with singular neuter)
• mätta = full (plural, and also definite forms in some contexts)

Examples:

• Barnet var mätt. = The child was full.
• Barnen var mätta. = The children were full.

So mätta is used because the children are plural.

Grammatically, it could in another context, but in this sentence the natural interpretation is that de refers to barnen.

The structure is:

• Moster undrade om barnen fick äta fler nötter, eller om de redan var mätta.

The second clause continues the same topic, so de is understood as the children.

This kind of pronoun reference is very common in Swedish, just as in English.

It is acceptable here because the sentence contains two coordinated om-clauses:

• om barnen fick äta fler nötter
• eller om de redan var mätta

The comma helps readability, especially in a longer sentence. In Swedish punctuation, commas are often more optional than in English, but this comma is perfectly natural.

So the sentence could often also appear without the comma, depending on style, but with the comma it is clear and smooth to read.