Learn Swedish: Hon står och vattnar blomman. - She is standing and watering the flower.

In Swedish, to express that someone is currently in the middle of doing something, we often pair a posture verb (like står for standing, sitter for sitting, or ligger for lying down) with och and the main action verb. Using står och vattnar strongly emphasizes the ongoing action, much like the English "-ing" ending.

Does this have to be translated as "She is standing and watering"?

Not necessarily! While it literally means "stands and waters", in everyday English you would usually just translate this as "She is watering the flower". The står och part is primarily there to create that continuous "-ing" feeling, while also painting a quick picture of her physical position.

Why do both står and vattnar end in -r?

When using this "verb + och + verb" structure (called pseudo-coordination), both verbs must be in the exact same tense. Since this action is happening right now, both verbs are in the present tense and take the present tense -r ending. If it happened yesterday, both would change to the past tense: Hon stod och vattnade.

Why does the sentence use blomman instead of blomma?