Learn Swedish: Han tog och röjde högen på golvet igår. - He went ahead and cleared out the pile on the floor yesterday.

Using tog och is a common way to emphasize that someone took the initiative to start an action. It translates well to the English phrase 'went ahead and'. If you just said Han röjde högen, it simply means 'He cleared the pile', but adding tog och highlights the decisive, proactive moment of finally tackling that pile on the floor.

Both tog and röjde are in the past tense here. Don't we usually use an infinitive after the first verb?

Normally, a helper verb is followed by an infinitive (like in han ville röja). However, this is a pseudo-coordination linked by och (and). Because the two verbs are coordinated rather than one depending on the other, they must match in tense. Since the action happened yesterday, both verbs take the past tense: tog and röjde.

What kind of cleaning does röjde imply compared to a word like städade?

The verb att röja specifically means to clear away clutter, remove obstacles, or organize a messy area. Att städa is more about general cleaning, like vacuuming or wiping dust. Since he is dealing with a pile (högen), röjde is the perfect verb because it means he sorted it out or physically cleared it away.

If I wanted to emphasize that he did this yesterday, could I put igår at the start of the sentence?