You may have noticed that sometimes Swedish speakers do not place the subject of their sentences first, before the verb, as you would in English. Heck, sometimes they leave out the subject entirely (in spoken language):

Jag stötte på Malin på stan idag. Visste inte hon var på besök här!
I ran into Malin in town today. Didn’t know she was visiting here!

Notice the lack of subject in the second sentence. This is a common phenomenon in spoken Swedish if the subject is already understood from previous statements, although most common in first person.

Keep in mind, though, that stöta på and stöta på are two different expressions! Yes, they may look exactly the same, but for one of them you emphasize the på and for the other you don’t. Check it out:

Jag stötte på henne på stan. (emphasis on på) – I ran into her in town.
Jag stötte på henne på stan. (emphasis on stötte) – I hit on (flirted with) her in town.

In other words, make sure you don’t get these confused, because you will probably be made fun of if you say the wrong one!

But that’s not what this post is about. I actually want to introduce the following concept to you:

Hans kusin studerar i Lund just nu. – His cousin is studying in Lund right now.
can also be written as:
Just nu studerar hans kusin i Lund. – Right now, his cousin is studying in Lund.

Just as in English, you can switch around sentence structures in Swedish. But notice what happens when you do it in Swedish, quite unlike in English:

Just nu studerar hans kusin i Lund. – Right now studies his cousin in Lund. (literally translated)

Why? The Swedish language has a rule that in an independent clause (learn more here), the subject (whatever/whoever is doing the action, in this case hans kusin) must always come beside the verb (the action, in this case studerar), either directly before or directly after it. So if you decide to start the sentence with something other than the subject, then make sure the subject comes immediately after the verb!

To be continued in further detail ~