Learn Swedish: Han ställde väskan på golvet innan pausen. - He put the bag on the floor before the break.

The infinitive verb is ställa (to put/place). It belongs to Group 2a, which means its stem ends in a voiced consonant (in this case, the double L). To make the past tense for this group, you just take the stem (ställ-) and add the suffix -de, giving us ställde.

I thought the word for "to put" was lägga. Why is ställde used here?

In Swedish, the word you use for "put" depends on the object's position. You use ställa for putting things down in an upright or standing position (like a bag, a glass, or a chair). If you were putting the bag down flat on its side, you would use lägga, which means to lay or place horizontally.

Why do the words väskan, golvet, and pausen all have suffixes at the end?

These are the definite forms of the nouns, meaning "the bag", "the floor", and "the break". En väska becomes väskan, ett golv becomes golvet, and en paus becomes pausen. Remember that Swedish attaches an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word for "the".

Could I use före instead of innan for "before the break"?