Vandrarhemmet låg nära kusten.

Because Swedish usually writes compound nouns as a single word.
Here, vandrarhem means hostel or youth hostel, and then -et is added to make it definite:

• ett vandrarhem = a hostel
• vandrarhemmet = the hostel

So Swedish does not separate this into something like vandrar hemmet.

It is the definite article attached to the end of the noun. In English, you would use the before the noun, but in Swedish it is often added as a suffix.

• ett vandrarhem = a hostel
• vandrarhemmet = the hostel

The ending -et shows that vandrarhem is a neuter noun (an ett noun).

Låg is the past tense of ligga. Literally, ligga often means lie, but Swedish also uses it very commonly for the location of places, buildings, towns, islands, and so on.

So in this sentence, låg means something like:

• was located
• lay
• was situated

It does not mean the hostel was physically lying down in some strange way. This is just normal Swedish usage for location.

Sometimes, yes, but låg is more idiomatic when talking about where a place or building was located.

• Vandrarhemmet låg nära kusten sounds very natural for location.
• Vandrarhemmet var nära kusten is understandable, but it sounds more like stating a relationship or fact rather than using the typical location verb.

Swedish often prefers verbs like:

• ligga for things spread out or located somewhere
• stå for things standing upright
• sitta for things sitting/attached in a position

This is one place where Swedish is more specific than English.

Here nära works like a preposition, meaning near or close to.

So:

• nära kusten = near the coast

Unlike English close to, Swedish does not need an extra word after nära. You can go directly from nära to the noun.

Because kusten is the definite form of kust.

• en kust = a coast
• kusten = the coast

The noun kust is a common gender noun (an en noun), so its singular definite form ends in -en.

In this sentence, Swedish uses the definite form because it refers to a specific coast or shoreline, not just any coast in general.

It follows normal Swedish main-clause word order:

• Vandrarhemmet = subject
• låg = verb
• nära kusten = place expression

So the structure is:

subject + verb + place

This is very similar to normal English word order.

The two nouns have different grammatical genders:

• vandrarhem is a neuter noun: ett vandrarhem
• kust is a common gender noun: en kust

That is why their definite forms are different:

• vandrarhemmet = the hostel
• kusten = the coast

So the endings reflect noun gender:

• neuter singular definite: -et
• common gender singular definite: -en

It can mean both, depending on context. Traditionally, vandrarhem is often translated as youth hostel, but in modern English hostel is usually the most natural translation.

So if you see vandrarhem, think of inexpensive hostel-style accommodation. It does not necessarily mean it is only for young people.

Because Swedish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.

In this sentence:

• vandrarhemmet already means the hostel
• kusten already means the coast

So Swedish does the job of English the with noun endings here, not with a separate standalone word.