Skadan fanns före inflyttningen.

Because Swedish usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun.

• en skada = a damage / an injury
• skadan = the damage / the injury

So skadan is the definite singular form of skada.

In this sentence, it refers to a specific damage that both speaker and listener already know about.

Fanns is the past tense of finnas, which means to exist / to be present / to be there.

• det finns = there is / there are
• det fanns = there was / there were
• skadan fanns = the damage was there / existed

Swedish often uses finnas where English might use be.

So:

• Skadan var före inflyttningen would sound wrong here.
• Skadan fanns före inflyttningen correctly means that the damage already existed at that time.

It can mean both, depending on context.

In this sentence, fanns suggests:

• the damage already existed
• the damage was there
• the damage was already present before the move-in

English might translate it in different ways, but Swedish naturally uses fanns for this idea of prior existence or presence.

Före means before.

Here it is a preposition followed by a noun phrase:

• före inflyttningen = before the move-in

So the structure is:

• före
  • noun

This is similar to English before the move-in.

Inflyttningen means the move-in or the moving in, especially in a housing or rental context.

It comes from inflyttning, a noun related to the verb flytta in = move in.

So:

• flytta in = to move in
• inflyttning = moving in / move-in
• inflyttningen = the move-in

In this sentence, it usually refers to the specific time when someone moved into a home or apartment.

For the same reason as skadan: it is definite.

• inflyttning = move-in / moving in
• inflyttningen = the move-in

The sentence is talking about a specific move-in event, not move-in in general. That is why Swedish uses the definite form.

Yes, in many contexts you can.

• före inflyttningen
• innan inflyttningen

Both can mean before the move-in.

A useful rule of thumb is:

• före is very commonly used before nouns
• innan is often used before clauses, but it can also be used before noun phrases in everyday Swedish

So Skadan fanns innan inflyttningen is also understandable and natural.

No, this is normal Swedish word order.

The sentence is:

• Skadan = subject
• fanns = verb
• före inflyttningen = time expression

So it follows the basic pattern:

• subject + verb + adverbial

If you moved the time expression to the front, Swedish would still keep the verb in second position:

• Före inflyttningen fanns skadan.

That is a standard Swedish V2 pattern.

Yes. Skada can mean:

• damage to property or objects
• injury to a person

The correct meaning depends on context.

In a sentence with inflyttningen, it most naturally means damage, because move-in situations usually involve apartments, houses, walls, floors, and similar things.

No. In skadan, the sk is pronounced as a normal hard sk sound, because it comes before a.

So it is roughly:

• skadan ≈ SKA-dan
• fanns ≈ fanss
• före ≈ FUR-eh (very roughly)
• inflyttningen ≈ INN-flyt-ning-en

Important point:

• sk before a, o, u, å is usually a hard sk
• sk before e, i, y, ä, ö often becomes the softer sj-like sound

So skadan has a hard sk sound, not the softer one.