Svenska

I’m learning Swedish. Keeping track of what words I know is kinda handy, as well as the little ways I’ve used to remember how to spell them.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of stuff I’ve learned, some of them are easy enough to keep in memory, these are just the ones I have occassional trouble remembering, or remembering how to spell them.

This is mostly here for my own reference, so if you found this page, good sleuthing I guess?

General rules and notes

å, ä, ö

These are considered their own letters in Swedish, not a/o with diacritics added.

• å = pronounced like ‘oa’ in ‘oar’
• ä = pronounced like ‘eeh’
• ö = pronounced like ‘uuh’

They come after the the 26 English alphabet characters in terms of sorting order.

Noun gender

All nouns are either common gender (utrum) or neuter gender (neuterum). There are no hard or fast rules for what nouns use which gender—you just need to memorise them.

‘en’ is used for common gender nouns, ‘ett’ is used for neuter nouns. Knowing these are necessary for definite articles, where the gender affects the suffix of the word.

e.g. en hund (a dog) → hunden (the dog)
e.g. ett bi (a bee) → biet (the bee)

They’re also used for adjective agreement.

e.g. en bil (a car) → en stor bil (a big car)
e.g. ett hus (a house) → ett stort hus (a big house)

And both together: e.g. stort huset (the big house)

As a general guideline, common gender is used for:

• most living things — like people, plants and animals
• days, months, seasons
• tools and utensils

Neuter gender is used for:

• diminutives of living things — children, babies
• geographical names
• abstract concepts
• materials
• nouns ending in -um or -eri

Plurals

Most gendered nouns are pluralised by suffixing them with -ar.

e.g. jordgubbe (strawberry) → jordgubbar (strawberries)
e.g. tidning (newspaper) → tidningar (newspapers)
e.g. pojke (boy) → pojkar (boys)

Female gendered nouns may be suffixed with -or.

e.g. kvinna (woman) → kvinnor (women)
e.g. flicka (girl) → flickor (girls)

Neuter nouns do not change for their plural forms, so quantity must be determined by context.

e.g. bi (bee or bees)
e.g. brev (letter or letters)

Definitive plurals

Gendered definitive plurals are additionally suffixed by -na.

e.g. jordgubbar (strawberries) → jordgubbarna (the strawberries)
e.g. pojkar (boys) → pojkarna (the boys)
e.g. kvinnor (women) → kvinnorna (the women)

Neuter definitive plurals are suffixed by -en, instead of the -et that their definitive forms usually use.

e.g. biet (the bee) → bien (the bees)
e.g. brevet (the letter) → breven (the letters)

Capitalisation

Other than the first letter of a sentence, only proper nouns (those of people, places, and brand names) are typically capitalised. Other nouns are always lower case.

e.g. de pratar engelska i England (they speak English in England)
e.g. jag är i Norge på juli (I am in Norway in July).

Abbreviations are also capitalised.

Punctuation

Generally speaking, punctuation rules are mostly the same as in English.

Quotation marks

Quotation marks use ‘end’ quotations at both the start and end of the quote.

e.g. ”Hej! Jag heter är beeps.”

Some historical or ‘fancy’ cases use inward pointing guillemets instead of quotation marks.

e.g. »Hej! Jag heter är beeps.«

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are truncated by use of a colon separating the first and last letters.

e.g. Sankt (Saint) can be shortened to S:t, such as in S:t Eriksplan

For ordinal numbers, the number is used instead of the first letter

e.g. tredje (third) can be shortened to 3:e

Colons are also used to separate suffixes (such as defintives, plurals, and posessives) where they may affect the reading.

e.g. b:et (the B)
e.g. CD:n (the CD)
e.g. USA:s (USA’s)

Dates and times

Dates are typically written as YYYY-MM-DD in modern documents. Times are written in the 24-hour clock, separated by a colon or period.

e.g. 2025-08-28 på 22:57

The expanded date format includes the day and month name in an order similar to British English.

e.g. torsdag 28 augusti 2025 (Thursday 28 August 2025)

Numbers

Numbers use a space to separate thousands and a comma to separate decimals.

e.g. 12 345,67

Currency

Sweden no longer issues physical currency in decimal amounts, the smallest coin value being 1 kr, but prices may still be fractional for the purposes of digital payments.

The Swedish kroner can be abbreviated to ‘kr’ or to ‘SEK’. Both may appear before or after the value, separated by a space. ‘kr’ typically comes after, whereas ‘SEK’ comes before.

e.g. 29,50 kr
e.g. SEK 29,50

Foreign currency symbols appear after the value, separated by a space.

e.g. 9,99 €
e.g. 9,99 £

Weights and measures

Metric weights and measures use the same names and abbreviations as in English.

e.g. 25 kg
e.g. 42 cm
e.g. 2 l

Imperial weights and measures use different names. Other than English stone, they are not abbreviated.

e.g. 5 fot (5 feet)
e.g. 6 tum (6 inches)
e.g. 82 pund (82 pounds)
e.g. 22 uns (22 ounces)
e.g. 12 eng. sten (12 English stone)

Common phrases

English	Svenska	Note
welcome	välkommen	Welcome VALerie
sorry	förlåt	pronounced like ‘forlorn’
excuse me	ursäkta	U R sakta
please, thank you	tack
thank you so much	tack så mycket	lit. ‘thank so very’
you’re welcome	varsågod	formal?
[statement], right?	[statement], eller hur?	lit. ‘or what?’
cool!	häftigt!
check that out!	kolla!	lit. ‘check’
help	hjälp
on the way	på vag	lit. ‘on move’
what is your name?	vad heter du?	lit. ‘what called you?’
my name is…	jag heter…	lit. ‘I called…’
there is/are…	det finns…	lit. ‘there exists…’

Questions

Questions are formed by moving the verb to the start of the sentence.

e.g. du förstår svenska (you understand Swedish) → förstår du svenska? (lit. understand you swedish?)

e.g. du bor i centrum (you live in downtown) → bor du i centrum? (lit. live you in downtown?)

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)	Note
who	vem
whose	vems
what	vad
when	när
time when	då			sort of nostalgic in tone
where	var	vart	vara
where	där			a specific location
to where	dit
which	vilken	vilket	vilka
why	varför			same as Middle English ‘wherefore’
how	hur
do you have…	har du ingen…	har du inget…	har du inga…
do you know…	vet du…
what is … doing?	vad gör…

Connecting words

English	Svenska	Note
very	väldigt	val digs it
maybe	kanske	‘can she?’ maybe
but	men
with	med
without	utan
as, so	så
on, to	på
to	till
towards, against	mot
from	från
by, at, on	vid
at	hos
of, in	av
for, about	om
that	att
but	utan
because, since	eftersom
according to	enligt	like ‘enlighten’
for	åt
while	stund
until	tills, förrän

Relative locations

English	Svenska	Note
through, across	genom
between	mellan
before	före, innan
after	efter
in front of	framför
behind	bakom
outside	utanför
ahead, before	framåt
over, above	över
under	under
beside	bredvid
by	av
into	till
towards	mot

Seasonal terms

English	Svenska	Note
Merry Christmas	god jul	lit. ‘good christmas’
Happy new year	gott nytt ar	lit. ‘good new year’
Happy birthday	grattis på födelsedagen	lit. ‘congratulations on the birth day’

Pronouns

English	Svenska	Note
I	jag
me	mig
you (subject)	du, ni	you do something
you (object)	dig	something happens to you
we	vi
us	oss
he	han
him	honom
she	hon
her	henne
they	de
them	dem
it	den, det	‘den’ for gendered, ‘det’ for neuter

‘du’ vs. ‘ni’

Historically, ‘du’ is informal whereas ‘ni’ is formal. In the modern day, however, ‘du’ is used almost universally.

‘Ni’ remains as an optional way of showing deference and respect, and is more common in rural or traditional settings.

Posessive pronouns

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)
my	min	mitt	mina
(my) own	sin	sitt	sina
your (singular)	din	ditt	dina
your (plural)	er	ert	era
our	vår	vårt	våra
his	hans	—	—
hers	hennes	—	—
their (singular)	hens	—	—
their (plural)	deras	—	—
its	dess	—	—

Verbs

Verbs can be reversed by adding ‘inte’ after them.

e.g. du äter choklad (you are eating chocolate) → do äter inte choklad (you are not eating chocolate)

The actual prefix ‘to’ is ‘att’ for verbs. If a sentence is to begin with the verb (i.e. it is not being said about a specific subject) then start the sentence with ‘att’.

e.g. du äter bra (you are eating good) → att äter bra (to eat good)

Abstract verbs

English	Svenska (present)	Note
to exist, to be	finns
to let, to allow	låt
to think	tycker
to like	tycker om	lit. ‘think about’
to love	älskar	I love Alaska-r
to have	ha
to want	vill ha	I vill have it
to need	behöver	like ‘behoove’
to be required to do	får
to choose	väljer	Choose Jean Valjean
to understand	förstår	understanding four stars
to think, to intend	tänker	think tank-er
to support	stöttar	support otter
to be born	född (?)

Movement

English	Svenska (present)	Note
to go	åker
to follow	följa
to walk	går
to run	springer	Run with a spring in your step
to jump	hoppar
to fly	flyger
to stand	står	stand and står
to sit	sitter

Activities

English	Svenska (present)	Note
to eat	äter
to drink	dricker
to work	arbetar	ar beta r
to look	titt
to find	hittar
to watch	tittar på	lit. ‘looking on’
to show	visar	show with vision
to listen	lyssnar
to hear	hör
to speak (as a language)	talar	Tellarites speak
to talk (as to converse)	pratar
to laugh	skratta
to cry	gråter	a child crying is quite grating
to see	ser
to buy	köper
to sell	säljer	säljer boy sellem
to pay	betalar	beta lar
to take	tar
to own	äger
to make, to do	göra
to use	använder	an van der
to prepare, to repair	lagar	a brewer prepares lager
to invite, to treat	bjuda
to play (an instrument)	spelar	playing a spelling game
to play (a game)	leker	Lakers play basketball
to study	pluggar	plugs away at
to clean	städar
to wash	tvättar
to sleep	sover
to wake up	vaknar	like ‘wake now’
to shower	duschar	like ‘does shower’
to cook	lagar (mat)	lit. ‘prepare food’
to bake	bakar
to read	läser	laser scanning a book?
to write	skriver
to draw	ritar
to paint	målar
to sing	sjunger
to dance	dansar	Ted Dansen dances, Ted Dansar
to wear	har på	lit. ‘have on’
to work out, to exercise	tränar	like ‘trainer’
to go camping	tältar	like ‘tent-er’
to go sailing	seglar	like ‘sailor’
to go swimming	simmar	Sims shouldn’t go swimming
to do business	affär	business affairs

Things you don’t normally do verbs

English	Svenska (present)	Note
to rain	regnar	like ‘regnal’, someone who reigns

Adjectives

Adjectives can be reversed by adding ‘inte’ before them.

e.g. att skriva svenska är lätt (to write Swedish is easy) → att skriva svenska är inte lätt (to write Swedish is not easy)

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)	Note
good	bra			what’s good, brah?
new	ny	nytt
easy	lätt			latte’s are easy
sweet, cute	söt
scary	skrämmande			scary things make you ‘scram, man’
big	stor			a big store
little, small	liten, små	litet	lilla	little kitten :3
tall	lång	långt		like ‘long’
fat	fet, tjock
thin	tunn			does not weigh a tunn
scary	skrämmande			scary things make you want to ‘scram and…’
quiet	tyst			quietly ‘tyst tyst’
cheap	billig
expensive	dyr			‘dear’
old	gammal	gammalt	gamla	gammons are old
young	ung
open	öppen		öppna
dirty	smutsig	smutsigt	smutsiga
clean	ren	rent	rena
popular	populär
possible	möjlig
nice, beautiful	fin
the same	samma
next	nästa
important	viktig
official	officiell
necessary	nödvändig
perfect	perfekt
whole	hel
alike	lik

Feelings

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)	Note
happy	glad, lycklig
sad	ledsen
angry	arg			ARG!
hungry	hungrig
thirsty	törstig
tired	trött

Directions

English	Svenska	Note
here	här
there	där
nearby	närheten	‘near heart’
on the right	till höger	lit. ‘to right’
on the left	till vänster	lit. ‘to left’
over there	där borta	lit. ‘there away’
far away	långt borta	lit. ‘long away’

Quantity

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)
several	flera	—	—
many	många	—	—
no, none	ingen	inget	inga

Colours

English	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)
colour	färg	—	—
colourful	färgglad	färgglatt	färgglada
black	svart	svartt	svarta
white	vit	vitt	vita
grey	grå	gråt	gråa
red	röd	röt	röda
green	grön	grönt	gröna
blue	blå	blåt	blåa
yellow	gul	gult	gula
orange	orange	—	—
pink	rosa	—	—
purple	lila	—	—
golden	gyllene	—
silver	silver	—

Adverbs

English	Svenska	Note
home	hemma
happily	lyckligt	‘lick light’
early	tidigt
always [verb]	[verb] alltid	‘all time’?
often [verb]	[verb] ofta	often
sometimes [verb]	[verb] ibland	Apple sometimes releases a bland thing, the iBland
never [verb]	[verb] aldrig

Nouns

Posessive nouns

Posessive plurals are suffixed with an -s. Unlike English, there is no apostrophe separating it.

e.g. flickas mat (girls’s food)
e.g. mannens hund (the man’s dog)

Abstract concepts

English	Gender	Svenska (en)	Svenska (ett)	Svenska (pl.)	Note
question, asking		frågar		frågor
answer		svaren	svaret

People

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
friend	Common	vän	a van full of friends
woman	Common	kvinna
women	Common	kvinnor	definitive is ‘kvinnorna’
man	Common	man
men	Common	män
girl	Common	flicka
girls	Common	flickor
boy	Common	pojke
boys	Common	pojke	definitive plural is ‘pojkarna’

Immediate family members

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
parent	Common	förälder	lit. ‘fore elder’
mother	Common	mor, mamma	‘mor’ formal, ‘mamma’ informal
father	Common	far, pappa	‘mor’ formal, ‘mamma’ informal
sibling, siblings	Neuter	syskon
brother	Common	bror
brothers	Common	bröder
sister	Common	syster
sisters	Common	systrar
twin	Common	tvilling
child	Neuter	barn
children	Neuter	barn	definitive is ‘barnen’
son	Common	son
sons	Common	söner
daughter	Common	dotter
daughters	Common	döttrar

Extended family members

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
(paternal) grandmother	Common	farmor	lit. ‘father mother’
(maternal) grandmother	Common	mormor	lit. ‘mother mother’
(paternal) grandfather	Common	farfar	lit. ‘father father’
(maternal) grandfather	Common	morfar	lit. ‘mother father’
grandchild	Neuter	barnbarn	lit. ‘child child’
grandchildren	Neuter	barnbarn	definitive is ‘barnbarnen’
(paternal) aunt	Common	faster	combination of ‘far’ and ‘syster’
(maternal) aunt	Common	moster	combination of ‘mor’ and ‘syster’, also generic term for aunt
(paternal) uncle	Common	farbror	lit. ‘father brother’, also generic term for uncle
(maternal) uncle	Common	morbror	lit. ‘mother brother’
cousin	Common	kusin
cousins	Common	kusiner

Places

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
apartment	Common	lägenhet	lager hut?
the centre, downtown		centrum
bus stop	Common	busshållplats	‘bus hall plat(form)s’
airport	Common	flygplats	‘fly g plat(form)s’
bakery	Neuter	bageri
market	Common	marknad
grocery store	Common?	mataffär	‘mat affair’ lit. ‘food business’
university	Neuter	universitet
church	Common	kyrka
castle	Common?	borg
-ö	Common?	island
-å	Common?	river
Gothenberg		Göteborg	🐐🤖
Sweden, Swedish		Sverige, Svenska	pronounced like ‘so very uh’
Great Britain, British		Storbritannien, Brittisk	Big Britannia
Norway, Norwegian		Norge, Norska

Food & drink

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
food	Common	mat
meal	Common	måltid
breakfast	Common	frukost	like ‘fruit toast’
lunch	Common	lunch
dinner	Common	middag	dinner is not at midday
soup	Common	soppa	sopping wet soup
salad	Common	sallad	two Ls
apple	Common	äpple
orange	Common	apelsin	derived from ‘apple’ + ‘Sino’ = Chinese apple
strawberry	Common	jordgubbe
Danish pastry	Common	wienerbröd	lit. ‘Vienna bread’
sandwich	Common	smörgås
chicken	Common	kyckling	chickens be kicking?
pork	Neuter	fläskkött	definitive is ‘fläsket’, lit. ‘flesh’, ‘flesh meat’
beef	Neuter	nötkött	lit. ‘cattle meat’
ice cream	Common	glass	not ‘glas’, which means glass
oil	Common	olja	not to be confused with ‘öl’ for beer

Objects

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
table	Neuter	bord
desk	Neuter	skrivbord	scribe board, lit ‘(to) write table’
refrigerator	Neuter	kylskåp	Kyle’s cap
bed	Common	säng	sang to sleep
bag	Common	väska	you gotta vask for a bag
money		pengar	definitive is ‘pengarna’, always plural
ticket	Common	biljett	need a ticket to get on a jett
book	Common	bok
letter	Neuter	brev	a brief letter
newspaper	Common	tidning
fork	Common	gaffel	eat a waffel with a fork
knife	Common	kniv
spoon	Common	sked	a food sled
plate	Common	tallrik	Tall Rick
cup	Common	kopp
calendar	Common	kalender	‘der’ not ‘dar’

Jobs

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
job	Neuter	jobb
profession	Neuter	yrke	pronounced kinda like ‘work’
career	Common	karriär
worker, workers	Common	arbetare	ar-beta-re
professional	Common	professionell
staff	Common	personal
actor	Common	skådespelare	ska despel are - actors despel?
actress	Common	skådespelarska	ska despel ar ska - ends how it begins
author, writer	Common	författare
architect	Common	arkitekt
artist	Common	artist
boss	Common	chef	Yes chef
cook, chef	Common	kock
doctor	Common	läkare	doctors are care
engineer	Common	ingenjör	in gen jor
farmer	Common	bonde	James Bond retires to become a farmer
firefighter	Common	brandman	lit. ‘fire man’
guard	Common	vakt
interpreter	Common	tolk
judge	Common	domare	judges have legal domain
model	Common	modell
police officer	Common	polis
priest	Common	präst
secretary	Common	sekreterare	sek-ret-e-rare
soldier	Common	soldat
teacher	Common	lärare	teachers are rare
web developer	Common	webbutvecklare	web but veck lare

Activities

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
football	Common	fotboll	one O, two Ls
chess	Neuter	schack	school hack
holiday	Common	semester
travel	Common	resa
business trip	Common	affärsresa	A fars resa

Animals

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
animal	Neuter	djur, djuret	deer is animal
pet	Neuter	husdjur, husdjuret	lit. ‘house animal’
ant	Common	myra, myran
bat	Common	fladdermus, fladdermusen	like ‘flapper mouse’
bear	Common	björn, björnen
bee	Neuter	bi, biet
crab	Common	krabb, krabban
(roe) deer	Common	rådjur, rådjuren	ro-djur
duck	Common	anka, ankan
dragon	Common	drake, draken
elephant	Common	elefant, elefanten	ele fan ten
hippo	Common	flodhäst, flodhästen	like ‘flood hast’
horse	Common	häst, hästen	horse goes fast = hast
lion	Common	lejon, lejonen	spelled like ‘legion’, said like ‘leon’
moose	Common	älg, älgen	like elk, pronounced like ‘elg’
mouse	Common	mus, musen
penguin	Common	pingvin, pingvinen
reindeer	Common	ren, renen	ren deer
sheep	Common	får, fåren	the sheep are far away
spider	Common	spindel, spindeln	spiders spin webs
squirrel	Common	ekorr, ekorren	squirrels like acorns (‘ekorren’)
turtle	Common	sköldpadda, sköldpaddan	‘scold paddle’?

Days and times

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
date	Neuter	datum
age	Common	ålder
birthday	Common	födelsedag

Years

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
year	Neuter	år
decade	Neuter	årtionde	lit. ‘year tenth’
century	Neuter	århundrade	lit. ‘year hundred’
quarter	Common	kvart
season	Common	årstid
spring	Common	vår
summer	Common	sommar
midsummer	Common	midsommar
autumn	Common	höst
winter	Common	vinter

Months

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
month	Common	månad
January	Common	januari
February	Common	februari
March	Common	mars
April	Common	april
May	Common	maj
June	Common	juni
July	Common	juli
August	Common	augusti
September	Common	september
October	Common	oktober
November	Common	november
December	Common	december

Weeks

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
week	Common	vecka
weekday	Common	vardag	lit. ‘every day’
weekend	Common	helg
day	Common	dag
today	Common	i dag	lit. ‘in day’
morning	Common	morgon
midday	Common	middag
afternoon	Common	eftermiddag	lit. ‘after midday’
evening	Common	kväll
night	Common	natt
tomorrow		i morgon	lit. ‘in morning’
Monday	Common	mondag
Tuesday	Common	tidsdag
Wednesday	Common	onsdag
Thursday	Common	törsdag
Friday	Common	fredag
Saturday	Common	lördag
Sunday	Common	söndag

Time

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
time	Common	tid
hour	Common	timme
minute	Common	minut
second	Common	sekund
period	Common	period
moment	Neuter	ögonblick
generation	Common	generation
whenever, at any time		när som helst	lit. ‘when as preferable’

Clothing and accessories

English	Gender	Svenska	Note
clothes	Common	kläder
belt	Common	skärp
button	Common	knapp
coat	Common	rock	don’t forget your coat when rock climbing
dress	Common	klänning	dress like the klan??
glove	Common	handske	hand-ske
jacket	Common	jacka
pocket	Common	ficka	fika is a pocket of time
scarf	Common	halsduk	a mallard duck looks like it’s wearing a scarf
shirt	Common	skjorta	sk-jort-a
skirt	Common	kjol	weirdly pronounced like ‘shawl’
sock	Common	strumpa
suit, costume	Common	kostym	like ‘costume’
sweater	Common	tröja	Trojan sweater
tie	Common	slips	slips on a tie
trousers	Common	byxor	definitive is ‘byxorna’

Other notes

Too many men

Lots of words are variations on man/men so I wanted to pull them out for ease of reference.

English	Svenska
man, husband	man
men, husbands	män
the man	mannen
the men	männen
but	men
while	medan

Tongue twisters

Svenska	English
fåglarna flyger framåt	the birds are flying ahead
min mormor är min mors mor	my grandmother is my mother’s mother
en ren ren	a clean reindeer