Learn Swedish: ”Skämtar chefen nu?” ”Nej, det gör hon inte.” - "Is the boss joking now?" "No, she is not."

In English, we reply with "she is not" because the question uses the "to be" verb ("Is the boss joking?"). But Swedish doesn't use "is" + "ing" for ongoing actions. skämtar is a regular action verb. To avoid repeating the verb in a short answer, Swedish replaces it with a form of göra (to do). You are essentially saying "No, she does not do that."

What is the word det doing in the short answer Nej, det gör hon inte?

In Swedish short answers, you usually need a placeholder word to stand in for the action or idea you are talking about. det acts as this placeholder, referring back to the entire action of "joking right now". Literally, the sentence translates to "No, that does she not."

Why is the word order det gör hon inte instead of starting with hon?

You could actually say Nej, hon gör inte det, which keeps the subject first. However, putting det first is a very common and natural way to form these short answers in Swedish. Because of the Swedish V2 rule (the verb must come second), starting with det forces the verb gör into the second position, pushing the subject hon to the third spot.

The word chefen is an en-word. Why does the answer use hon instead of den?