Learn Swedish: Nya uppfinningar skapas ofta av unga ingenjörer. - New inventions are often created by young engineers.

In this sentence, av means "by" and introduces the agent—the people actually doing the action in a passive sentence. While av can also mean "of" or "off" in other situations, when you see it directly after a passive verb like skapas, it almost always translates to "by".

How do we get the passive verb form skapas?

To make a passive verb in Swedish, you usually just add an -s to the active verb. The normal present tense verb for "create" is skapar. To make it passive, we drop the -r and add -s, giving us skapas (are created).

Why do the adjectives nya and unga end in -a?

They both end in -a because they are describing plural nouns (uppfinningar and ingenjörer). In Swedish, when an adjective describes a plural noun, it takes the -a ending regardless of whether the noun is an en-word or an ett-word.

Could I put ofta at the very beginning of the sentence?

Yes, but you have to remember the V2 rule! In Swedish, the verb must be the second block of information. If you start with the time word Ofta, the verb skapas must come right after it, pushing the subject later: Ofta skapas nya uppfinningar av unga ingenjörer.