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.

‘en’ vs. ‘ett’

‘en’ is used for common gender nouns. ‘ett’ is used for neutral gender (neuter) nouns. There is no hard or fast rule for what nouns use which gender—you just need to memorise them.

This is 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)

It is 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)

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
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 am 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	eftersom
through, across	genom
between	mellan
according to	enligt	like ‘enlighten’
before	före, innan
after	efter
in front of	framför
behind	bakom
outside	utanför
ahead, before	framåt
over, above	över
beside	bredvid
for	åt
if	om

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

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	—	—

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.

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 have (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

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	Note
good	bra	what’s good, brah?
new	ny, nytt
easy	lätt	latte’s are easy
small	liten	little kitten :3
sweet, cute	söt
scary	skrämmande	scary things make you ‘scram, man’
big	stor	a big store
tall	lång	like ‘long’
fat	fet, tjock
thin	tunn	does not weigh a tunn
hungry	hungrig
scary	skrämmande	scary things make you want to ‘scram and…’
quiet	tyst	quietly ‘tyst tyst’
cheap	billig
expensive	dyr	‘dear’
old	gammal	gammons are old
young	ung

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

People

English	Svenska	Svenska (definitive)	Note
friend	(en) vän	vännen	a van full of friends
woman	(en) kvinna	kvinnan
women	kvinnor	kvinnorna
man	(en) man	mannen
men	män	männen
girl	(en) flicka	flickan
girls	flickor	flickorna
boy	(en) pojke	pojken
boys	pojke	pojkarna
child	(ett) barn	barnet
children	barn	barnen

Places

English	Svenska	Svenska (definitive)	Note
apartment	(en) lägenhet	lägenheten	lager hut?
the centre, downtown	centrum
bus stop	(en) busshållplats	busshållplatsen	‘bus hall plat(form)s’
airport	(en) flygplats	flygplatsen	‘fly g plat(form)s’
bakery	(ett) bageri	bageriet
market	(en) marknad	marknaden
grocery store	mataffär		‘mat affair’ lit. ‘food business’
university	universitet
church	kyrka
castle	borg
-ö	island
-å	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	Svenska	Note
food	mat, maten
meal	måltid, måltiden
breakfast	frukost, frukosten	like ‘fruit toast’
dinner	middag, middagen	dinner is not at midday
soup	soppa, soppan	sopping wet soup
salad	sallad, salladen	two Ls
apple	äpple, äpplen
orange	apelsin, apelsinen	derived from ‘apple’ + ‘Sino’ = Chinese apple
strawberry	jordgubbe, jordgubben
Danish pastry	wienerbröd, wienerbrödet	lit. ‘Vienna bread’
sandwich	smörgås, smörgåsen
chicken	kyckling, kycklingen	chickens be kicking?
pork	fläsket, fläskkött	lit. ‘flesh’, ‘flesh meat’
beef	nötkött, nötköttet	lit. ‘cattle meat’
ice cream	glass, glassen	not ‘glas’, which means glass
oil	olja, oljan	not to be confused with ‘öl’ for beer

Objects

English	Svenska	Note
desk	skrivbord, skrivbordet	scribe board, lit ‘(to) write table’
refrigerator	kylskåp, kylskåpet	Kyle’s cap
bed	säng, sängen	sang to sleep
bag	väska, väskan	you gotta vask for a bag
money	pengar, pengarna	always plural
ticket	biljett, biljetten	need a ticket to get on a jett
book	bok, boken
letter	brev, brevet	a brief letter
newspaper	tidning, tidningen
fork	gaffel, gaffeln	eat a waffel with a fork
knife	kniv, kniven
spoon	sked, skeden	a food sled
plate	tallrik, tallriken	Tall Rick
cup	kopp, koppen

Jobs

English	Svenska	Note
web developer	webbutvecklare, webbutvecklaren	web but veck lare
engineer	ingenjör, ingenjören	in gen jor
doctor	läkare, läkaren	doctors are care
teacher	lärare, läraren	teachers are rare
actor	skådespelare, skådespelaren	ska despel are - actors despel?
farmer	bonde, bonden	James Bond retires to become a farmer
boss	chef, chefen	Yes chef
cook, chef	kock, kocken

Activities

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

Animals

Most animals use ‘en’, but the word ‘animal’ itself uses ‘ett’.

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

Times

English	Svenska	Note
night	natt, natten
morning	morgon, morgonen
tomorrow	i morgon	lit. ‘in morning’
whenever, at any time	när som helst

Clothing and accessories

English	Svenska	Note
clothes	kläder, klädern
belt	skärp, skarpen
button	knapp, knappen
coat	rock, rocken	don’t forget your coat when rock climbing
dress	klänning, klänningen	dress like the klan??
glove	handske, handsken	hand-ske
jacket	jacka, jackan
pocket	ficka, fickan	fika is a pocket of time
scarf	halsduk, halsduken	a mallard duck looks like it’s wearing a scarf
shirt	skjorta, skjortan	sk-jort-a
skirt	kjol, kjolen	weirdly pronounced like ‘shawl’
sock	strumpa, strumpan
suit, costume	kostym, kostymen	like ‘costume’
sweater	tröja, tröjan	Trojan sweater
tie	slips, slipsen	slips on a tie
trousers	byxor, 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