Learn Swedish: Stearinljuset brinner hela kvällen på soffbordet. - The candle burns all evening on the coffee table.

brinner is an intransitive verb, meaning the subject is doing the action itself without affecting an object. Here, the candle is just burning. You use bränner (the transitive version) when someone is burning something else, like a piece of wood. Notice they conjugate differently: brinner is a strong verb (brinner, brann, brunnit), while bränner is a regular weak verb (bränner, brände, bränt).

Why is the word for candle stearinljuset rather than just ljuset?

The word ljus can mean both 'light' and 'candle'. To be perfectly clear that it is a physical candle, Swedes often add the material it is usually made of, creating stearinljus (stearin wax candle). Both words are common, but stearinljuset leaves no doubt about what is burning.

Why isn't there a preposition before hela kvällen to mean 'for the whole evening'?

In Swedish, you don't need a preposition to show duration when using hela (whole or all). You simply use hela plus the definite form of the noun, like hela kvällen (all evening) or hela dagen (all day). Adding a word for 'for' would sound unnatural here.

Why does soffa (sofa) change to soff- in the word soffbordet?