Learn Swedish: Antingen klipper du den röda sladden, eller så exploderar bomben. - Either you cut the red cord, or the bomb explodes.

The sentence starts with Antingen (Either). When Antingen is placed at the very beginning of a main clause, it occupies the first position. Because Swedish strictly follows the V2 (verb-second) rule, the verb klipper must come immediately after it, pushing the subject du to the third position.

What is the word så doing in eller så exploderar bomben?

Here, så acts as a resumptive adverb, linking back to the condition in the first clause to mean 'or else' or 'otherwise'. Because så takes the first position in this new clause (after the coordinating conjunction eller), it triggers the V2 rule. This forces the verb exploderar to come before the subject bomben.

Could I drop the så and just say eller bomben exploderar?

Yes, that is perfectly correct. Because eller is a coordinating conjunction, you can follow it with standard subject-verb word order (eller bomben exploderar). However, using eller så with the inverted word order is incredibly common in Swedish when highlighting the consequence of a choice.

Why is the verb klipper used here for 'cut' rather than skär?