Hyresgästen betalade depositionen.

Because Swedish normally writes compound nouns as a single word.

Hyresgäst is made up of:

• hyres- = rental / rent-related
• gäst = guest

Together, the compound means tenant. This is very common in Swedish, so English-style spacing is usually not used for compounds.

In Swedish, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

So:

• hyresgäst → hyresgästen
• deposition → depositionen

Both of these are en-words in Swedish, so their definite singular form ends in -en.

That means:

• hyresgästen = the tenant
• depositionen = the deposit

The dictionary forms are:

• hyresgäst
• deposition

The forms in the sentence are definite singular:

• hyresgästen
• depositionen

So if you look them up in a dictionary, you would usually search for the forms without -en.

Betalade is the simple past form of betala, which means to pay.

A useful set of forms is:

• infinitive: betala
• present: betalar
• past: betalade
• supine: betalat

So betalade tells you that the action happened in the past.

No. Swedish verbs do not change for person the way English verbs sometimes do.

For example:

• jag betalar
• du betalar
• hyresgästen betalar
• de betalar

The verb stays the same. That makes Swedish verb agreement simpler than English.

This sentence uses the standard main-clause pattern:

subject + verb + object

So here:

• Hyresgästen = subject
• betalade = verb
• depositionen = object

This is similar to normal English word order.

A very important Swedish rule is that in main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in second position. So if you start with another element, the verb still comes second:

• Igår betalade hyresgästen depositionen.

Not always. It works well for a security deposit, especially in a rental context, which is why it fits here.

But English deposit has several meanings, and Swedish may use different words depending on the situation. For example:

• security deposit: deposition
• bank deposit / money paid into an account: often insättning

So it is best to learn the Swedish word by context, not assume one English word always matches one Swedish word.

You would use the indefinite article en before each noun:

En hyresgäst betalade en deposition.

Compare:

• hyresgästen = the tenant
• depositionen = the deposit
• en hyresgäst = a tenant
• en deposition = a deposit

You add inte after the verb:

Hyresgästen betalade inte depositionen.

That is the normal position in a main clause:

• subject
• verb
• inte
• object

Yes. That is also correct, but it uses a different tense.

• Hyresgästen betalade depositionen = simple past
• Hyresgästen har betalat depositionen = present perfect

Very roughly:

• betalade presents it as a past event
• har betalat often emphasizes that the result is relevant now

Both can be natural, depending on context.