Det är halvtid nu.

In this sentence, det is a dummy subject. It does not refer to a specific thing. Swedish often uses det in general statements like:

• Det är sent. = It is late.
• Det är kallt. = It is cold.
• Det är halvtid nu. = It is halftime now.

So here, det is just the normal grammatical subject.

Är is the present tense of vara, which means to be.

So:

• vara = to be
• är = is / are

In Det är halvtid nu, är means is, giving the basic structure It is halftime now.

Because Swedish normally writes compound nouns as a single word.

Here:

• halv = half
• tid = time

Together they form halvtid.

This is very typical in Swedish. English often separates words more than Swedish does, but Swedish prefers compounds:

• fotbollsmatch = football match
• sjukhus = hospital
• halvtid = halftime

So halv tid would usually look wrong in standard Swedish.

Because halvtid is being used as a predicative noun after är, describing the current situation or stage.

Compare the English pattern:

• It is halftime now.
• not usually It is the halftime now.

Swedish works similarly here:

• Det är halvtid nu.

If you were talking about a specific halftime as a noun in another structure, you could get a definite form:

• Halvtiden var kort. = The halftime was short.

But in Det är halvtid nu, the bare noun is the natural form.

Nu means now.

It tells you that this is the situation at this moment:

• Det är halvtid. = It is halftime.
• Det är halvtid nu. = It is halftime now.

So nu adds immediacy and can make the statement sound more anchored to the current moment.

Yes. Nu är det halvtid is also correct.

The difference is mainly emphasis:

• Det är halvtid nu. = neutral statement, with now added at the end
• Nu är det halvtid. = stronger focus on now

Both are natural. Swedish word order is often flexible when you move time expressions like nu to the front for emphasis.

You can usually leave out nu, but not det.

• Det är halvtid nu. = It is halftime now.
• Det är halvtid. = It is halftime.

Both are fine.

But you normally would not say:

• Är halvtid nu

because Swedish usually needs the subject det in this kind of sentence.

No. Halvtid can also mean part-time, depending on context.

For example:

• Det är halvtid nu. = It is halftime now.
• Hon jobbar halvtid. = She works part-time.

So the word has more than one meaning, and the context tells you which one is meant. In your sentence, it clearly means halftime.

It is an en word: en halvtid.

That is because the main part of the compound is tid, and tid is an en noun:

• en tid
• en halvtid

The definite form is halvtiden.

Even though no article appears in Det är halvtid nu, the noun itself still has gender, and that gender is en.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is roughly:

• det ≈ deh
• är ≈ ehr / air-like, but shorter
• halvtid ≈ hahlv-teed
• nu ≈ noo

A few useful notes:

• ä in är sounds somewhat like the vowel in English bed, though not exactly the same.
• tid has a long i sound, like ee.
• In normal speech, det är is often pronounced quite smoothly together.

If you want, you can think of the rhythm as:

deh ehr hahlv-TEED noo