På vardagarna går jag hemifrån halv nio.

Because Swedish often puts a time expression first when you want to set the scene.

So instead of starting with Jag, the sentence begins with På vardagarna = on weekdays.

When something other than the subject comes first in a Swedish main clause, Swedish uses verb-second word order. That is why you get:

• På vardagarna går jag hemifrån halv nio.

and not:

• På vardagarna jag går hemifrån halv nio.

The finite verb (går) must come in the second position.

This is because of the Swedish V2 rule (verb second).

In a normal statement, you can say:

• Jag går hemifrån halv nio.

But if you move another element to the front, such as a time phrase, the verb must still stay in second position:

• På vardagarna går jag hemifrån halv nio.

So the order becomes:

1. På vardagarna
2. går
3. jag
4. the rest of the sentence

This inversion is very common in Swedish.

På vardagarna is a prepositional phrase.

• på = on
• vardagarna = the weekdays

In Swedish, på is often used with recurring days or parts of the week:

• på måndag = on Monday
• på helgerna = on weekends
• på vardagarna = on weekdays

So this phrase means something like on weekdays / during weekdays as a routine.

Both can appear in Swedish, but vardagarna is very common when talking about a general repeated pattern.

• på vardagar = on weekdays
• på vardagarna = on weekdays / on the weekdays

In many everyday sentences, the definite form sounds more natural when talking about habitual time periods.

So På vardagarna is a very idiomatic way to say on weekdays.

The base form is vardag, which means weekday.

Here is the full pattern:

• en vardag = a weekday
• vardagen = the weekday
• vardagar = weekdays
• vardagarna = the weekdays

In the sentence, Swedish uses the plural definite form.

Because hemifrån is a fixed adverb meaning from home.

It is normally written as one word in Swedish:

• hemifrån = from home

This is similar to other Swedish place adverbs:

• hem = home, to home
• hemma = at home
• hemifrån = from home

So:

• Jag går hem. = I go home.
• Jag är hemma. = I am at home.
• Jag går hemifrån. = I leave home / go from home.

Literally, går means goes / walks, but in Swedish it is often used more broadly than English walk.

In this sentence, går hemifrån usually means leave home or set off from home, not necessarily that the person is walking.

So even if the person leaves by car, bus, or bike, Swedish can still use gå hemifrån in this kind of context.

In Swedish, you often give the time directly, without a preposition like at.

So:

• Jag går hemifrån halv nio. = I leave home at half past eight.

This is normal Swedish.

You can sometimes use vid for at, but it is not necessary here:

• Jag går hemifrån vid halv nio. = I leave home around half past eight.

Without vid, it sounds like a straightforward statement of time.

This is one of the most important time expressions for English speakers learning Swedish.

In Swedish, halv nio literally means half to nine, so it means halfway to nine = 8:30.

Examples:

• halv ett = 12:30
• halv tre = 2:30
• halv nio = 8:30

This is different from English half nine, which can cause confusion depending on the variety of English.

It is completely normal and very common in everyday Swedish.

Swedes very often tell time this way in speech:

• halv nio
• kvart över åtta
• kvart i nio

In more formal situations, schedules may use digits like 08.30, but in normal spoken Swedish halv nio is standard.

Går is the present tense of gå.

• gå = to go
• går = go/goes, am/is/are going depending on context

In this sentence, the present tense is used for a habitual action:

• På vardagarna går jag hemifrån halv nio.
• On weekdays, I leave home at 8:30.

So it describes something the speaker normally does.

Yes. That is also grammatical.

Compare:

• På vardagarna går jag hemifrån halv nio.
• Jag går hemifrån halv nio på vardagarna.

Both are correct, but the emphasis is slightly different.

• På vardagarna ... puts the focus first on when this happens as a routine
• Jag ... starts more neutrally with the subject

Swedish is flexible about this, but the verb-second rule still applies in main clauses.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

poh VAR-da-gar-na gor yah hem-ih-FRON halv NEE-oh

A few notes:

• å in på sounds roughly like the vowel in British more for many learners
• går has an å sound too
• jag is often pronounced more like ya in casual speech
• hemifrån has stress on the last part: -från
• nio is pronounced roughly NEE-oh

If you want to sound natural, pay special attention to:

• går jag → often flows together smoothly
• halv nio → stress usually falls on both words, especially nio at the end of the sentence