De höll inne den överenskomna depositionen.

Höll inne is the past tense of the particle verb hålla inne.

In this sentence, hålla inne means to withhold, to hold back, or to keep from being paid out or handed over. So the idea is that they did not release the deposit.

It is not best understood literally as held inside. The two words work together as one expression.

The base form is hålla.

This verb is irregular:

• infinitive: hålla
• present: håller
• past: höll
• supine: hållit

So höll looks different because Swedish has many strong or irregular verbs with vowel changes, much like English hold - held.

Not in the usual literal sense.

On its own, inne often means inside or indoors. But in hålla inne, it is a particle that forms a fixed verb expression with hålla.

So here:

• hålla
  • inne = withhold / keep back

A very common learner mistake is to translate particle verbs word for word. In this sentence, that would be misleading.

Because de is the subject form, meaning they.

Here, de are the ones performing the action of withholding, so Swedish uses de.

Compare:

• De höll inne depositionen. = They withheld the deposit.
• Jag såg dem. = I saw them.

A useful shortcut is:

• de = they
• dem = them

Also, in everyday speech, both de and dem are often pronounced dom, but standard writing still usually distinguishes them.

This is a classic Swedish feature called double definiteness.

When a noun is definite and has an adjective or adjective-like word before it, Swedish usually marks definiteness twice:

• with a separate word: den
• and with the definite ending on the noun: depositionen

So:

• deposition = deposit
• depositionen = the deposit
• den överenskomna depositionen = the agreed deposit

A simple comparison:

• bilen = the car
• den röda bilen = the red car

English does not do this, so it often feels strange at first.

Because it is in the definite form.

Överenskomna comes from överenskommen, a past participle used like an adjective, meaning agreed or agreed-upon.

Its form changes depending on the noun phrase:

• en överenskommen deposition = an agreed deposit
• ett överenskommet belopp = an agreed amount
• den överenskomna depositionen = the agreed deposit
• de överenskomna villkoren = the agreed terms

So the -a form is used here because the noun phrase is definite: den ... depositionen.

Here it functions like an adjective.

More precisely, it is a past participle from the verb överenskomma, but in this sentence it describes the noun depositionen.

So it works much like agreed in the agreed amount or the agreed date.

Here deposition is a financial word, something like deposit, security deposit, or in some contexts funds held on deposit / in escrow.

A native English speaker might wonder whether it means deposition in the legal sense, like sworn testimony before trial. In this sentence, it does not mean that. It is about money or funds, not testimony.

So this is a potential false friend area where the English-looking word may not mean exactly what you first expect.

Yes, it is completely normal.

Swedish main clauses normally put the finite verb in the second position:

• De = first element
• höll = finite verb in second position

Then the particle inne follows as part of the particle verb, and then the object comes after that:

• De höll inne den överenskomna depositionen.

This is a very natural structure in Swedish. If you add a sentence adverb such as inte, it typically comes between the finite verb and the particle:

• De höll inte inne den överenskomna depositionen.

So the original sentence has standard Swedish word order.