1.

1/Consonants

Notes:

g appears hard as in 'gun', but is never soft as in 'gem' (see below).
r is rolled as in Spanish, but when followed by d, l, or t, it is not pronounced and the preceding vowel is lengthened slightly. The combination rs is pronounced 'sh'. (Note: In southernmost Sweden, r is pronounced in the back of the throat as in German).
d, t, n are pronounced with the tongue touching the back of the teeth (dental)
s is always pronounced as in 'sell', never like z, as in 'has' or 'dogs'.

c is pronounced like the s in 'sit' when followed by e, i, y. Elsewhere pronounced as k.

g is pronounced as y when followed by e, i, y, ä, or ö. So Swedish 'gäst' sounds like the first syllable in 'yesterday'. Before a, o, å, u it is pronounced hard as in English 'go'.

j is always pronounced like y, as in 'yes'.

k is pronounced somewhat, though not exactly, like sh, as in 'ship' before e, i, y, ä, ö. The actual sound is between 'sh' and the German ch in 'ich'. Try saying 'sh' withyour tongue further back and your lips rounded. Before a, o, å, u pronounced hard, as in 'kill'.

The letters q, w, z appear only in foreign words and some proper names. q is pronounced as a hard 'k', w is always pronounced as 'v', and z is always pronounced as 's'.

 

dj, gj, hj, lj are all pronounced like Swedish j (English y)

sch, sj, skj, stj are all pronounced (like k, see above) between sh and the German ch in 'ich', but this holds before any vowel.

sk is pronounced as the above, but only before e, i, y, ä, ö. Elsewhere pronounced as in English 'scare' and 'scout'.

tj, kj are pronounced like the English sh in 'show', so is slightly different than the above sounds. These can occur before any vowel.

ch is pronounced as the Swedish tj/kj before e, i, y, ä, ö, but pronounced as the sj/stj sound before a, o, å, u. (not common)

ng usually this is one sound (velar nasal) as in 'singer' and 'rang', as opposed to the sound in 'finger'. But when followed by a stressed syllable it has the sound of 'finger'.

rg in this combination, the g is pronounced as y.

Note: keep in mind that Swedish has two sounds similar to the one English sound 'sh'.

3/Vowels

a a low back vowel. When long, like the sound in the British pronunciation of 'father'. When short, like the sound in 'must'.

å Like the sound in 'home' but without the glide.

e when short, the sound in 'set'. When long like the French é and the sound in 'make' but a pure vowel not a diphthong (no glide).

ä When short, the same as short e. When long, almost as long as the sound in 'plain' and 'air', but not quite as long as long e (and again with no glide).

i when long, ee as in 'feed' and 'machine'. When short, like the sound in 'bit'

ö when short, as in German ö, say French 'peu' and 'le'. When long, a longer version of ö, like German 'schön'.

o when long, much like oo in 'food'. When short, like the oo in 'good'. Note however, that o is pronounced in many words as å (in long and short positions).

y when long, like German ü and French u as in 'début'. English speakers, round lips as if to say o but say ee. When short, it is just a more clipped version. Remember, y is always a vowel in Swedish.

u When long, a more tightly pronounced version of y. When short, a looser, less rounded sound.

 

Nouns in Swedish have two genders, common and neuter, which adjectives must agree with when modifying nouns. These genders are signified by the indefinite articles: en and ett. In the vocabulary lists, a noun followed by (n) means that it is a neuter noun and it takes the indefinite article ett. The majority of nouns in Swedish are common gender, so they take the indefinite article en.

The only case of nouns that is used in Swedish is the genitive (showing possession), and it is easily formed by adding an -s to the noun. This is comparable to adding -'s in English to show possession. However, if the noun already ends in -s, then you add nothing (unlike English where we add -' or -'s). Anders bok = Anders's book

5. Articles & Demonstratives

There are two indefinite articles (corresponding to a and an) in Swedish: en and ett. En is used with most of the nouns (words denoting people almost always use en), but you will just have to learn which article goes with which noun. The definite article (the) is not a separate word like in most other languages. It is simply a form of the indefinite article attached to the end of the noun. Note that en words ending in a vowel retain that vowel and add an -n instead of adding -en. And ett words ending in -e just add a -t.

This, that, these and those are expressed in Swedish by using den, det or de plus the word här (here) and där (there). The noun is always in the definite form after these demonstratives. And if any adjectives follow the demonstrative, they must add an -a to the ending.

6. Subject & Object Pronouns

Man can be translated as one, we, they or the people in general.  When referring to nouns as it, you use den for en nouns, and det for ett nouns. Formerly, du was the informal you and ni was the formal, but these distinctions are rarely used anymore. The forms in parentheses are the informal ways of spelling these words, which is closer to the actual pronunciation.

The present and past tenses of verbs in Swedish are very simple to conjugate. All the forms are the same for each personal pronoun. The infinitive of the verb to be in Swedish is vara, and the conjugated present tense form is är and the past tense is var. The infinitive of the verb to have is ha, and the conjugated present tense form is har and the past tense is hade.

9. Question Words

12. Months of the Year / Årets mAnader

13. Seasons

An en word takes one of the following endings when it is pluralized: or, ar, er. An ett word takes an n or no ending at all.

Indefinite Plural

To form the definite plural, you must first form the indefinite plural and then add these endings to that word.

There are some nouns that change their vowel in the plural. These nouns usually take the -er ending when forming the indefinite plural.

The same forms are used for possessive adjectives that are used directly before nouns and for possessive pronouns that replace a noun. For example, this is my car and this is mine would be translated as det här är min bil and det här är min.

Sin, sitt and sina can only be used when the third person possessive adjective refers to the subject of the same clause. These words can be translated as his, her, its or their. Generally, if you cannot insert "own" after the possessive adjective in English, you cannot use sin/sitt/sina.

Per besöker sin mamma. = Per visits his (own) mother. (Sin refers back to Per.)
Eva ringer hans mamma. = Eva calls his mother. (Hans refers to Per, not Eva.)

22. To Do/Make & To Become

Vid is used to express a position next to something, but with no contact. I is used to express a position in something that is seen to have volume (room, containers, etc.); and it is also used with countries, cities, villages, etc. På is used to express a position on something that is seen as a line or surface with contact; and it is also used with islands, addresses, and particular places, such as bank, post office, cinema, hospital, library, etc. Three exceptions to using på with particular places include school, work, and the shop: i skolan, i affären, i kyrkan.

For languages, you generally add -a to the adjective: svenska is Swedish and engelska is English, etc.

To make a sentence negative in Swedish, simply add inte after the verb. If there is an auxiliary verb and a main verb, inte goes between the two.
In addition, if you answer "yes" to a negative question, you must use jo instead of ja.

A yes/no question can be answered with a short phrase, just as in English. The verb göra (to do/make) is used with the pronoun det and the subject of the question. Some verbs are not replaced by göra and are repeated in the short answer, such as vara and ha. This is very similar to English, except for the word order.

Positive Short Answer: Ja + det + Verb + Subject
Negative Short Answer: Nej + det + Verb + Subject + inte

Arbetar hon här? Does she work here?
Ja, det gör hon. Yes, she does.
Nej, det gör hon inte. No, she doesn't.

Är de glada? Are they happy?
Ja, det är de. Yes, they are.
Nej, det är de inte. No, they are not.

Just as in English, there is no past form of must / måste. You can either use var tvungen or behövde instead, as in jag var tvungen att ... = I had to...

Vi kan tala engelska. We can speak English.
Han kunde inte spela. He could not play.
Sven vill sova. Sven wants to sleep.
Hon vill ha kaffe. She wants coffee. (When vilja is followed by a noun, ha is added before the noun.)
Du får röka. You may smoke.
De måste gå hem nu. They must go home now.
Du får inte röka. You must not smoke. (Must not is translated with får inte rather than måste inte, which means don't have to.)
Jag brukar dricka kaffe efter lunch. I usually drink coffee after lunch. (Brukar in the present tense means usually + main verb.)

Infinitives in Swedish end in -a. When conjugating verbs, the same form is used for all subject pronouns, whether singular or plural. To form the present tense of verbs, either add -r to the infinitive or remove the -a and add -er.

tala - to speak (-ar verb) & stänga - to close (-er verb)

Four Past Tense Conjugations

To form the past tense, most verbs add -de to the present tense form of -ar verbs and to the stem of -er verbs (infinitive minus -a). But if the stem ends in a voiceless consonant (k, p, t, or s), then add -te instead. Another group of verbs, short verbs ending in a vowel, add -dde to form the past tense. (See 34. Irregular Verbs below for a longer list as many of these verbs have irregular forms in other tenses.)

Some verbs in Swedish are reflexive verbs, in that the action by the subject is performed by itself. This is comparable to the -self or -selves pronouns used in English with some verbs, such as he behaves himself. Most of the time, verbs that are reflexive in Swedish are not reflexive in English. To conjugate these verbs, simply add these pronouns after the verb:

The forms in parentheses are used in colloquial (spoken and written) Swedish. In fact, mig, dig and sig are pronounced as if they were written mej, dej and sej.

32. Commands

Verbs that end in -ar in the present tense simply remove the -r to form the command (imperative). Verbs that end in -er in the present tense remove the -er to form the command. You cannot form the imperative if you only know the infinitive and not if the verb takes -ar or -er in the present tense. But if you do know that an infinitive is an -ar verb, you leave the -a in the imperative, and if the infinitive is an -er verb, you remove the -a.

33. Present &Past Perfect

The present and past perfect tenses consist of two parts: har / hade and the supine form of the main verb. This is a compound tense that corresponds to has/have / had and a past participle in English. The main difference between Swedish and English in this tense, however, is that Swedish uses the supine form of the verb instead of the past participle.

To form the supine, -ar verbs add -t to the infinitive; while -er verbs replace -a with -t in the infinitive. Infinitives ending in long vowels add -tt to form the supine.

Jag har läst boken. I have read the book.
Hon hade öppnat dörren. She had opened the door.

34. Irregular Verbs

Several verbs in Swedish are considered irregular because they do not follow the rules for the different conjugations. These forms need to be memorized since these verbs are very common.

Some -er verbs (and never -ar verbs) have irregular simple past and supine forms. Sometimes these involve a vowel change and lack of ending.

A few infinitives in Swedish do not end in -a. These are short verbs and they end in a long, stressed vowel. The infinitive is the same as the imperative, and the present tense is formed by adding -r. The past tense if formed by adding -dde to the infinitive, and the supine is formed by adding -tt to the infinitive. However, a few of the short verbs have an irregular form in the past.

37. Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

In general, the word order of Swedish is the same as English: Subject + Verb + Object. However, the word order is slightly different from English when something other than the subject of the verb begins the sentence. In declarative sentences, the main verb is always in the second position (but not necessarily the second word!). For example, if a sentence begins with an adverb or an object, the verb will be the second element in the sentence, and the subject will come after the verb. Then any other forms of verbs (such as participles or infinitives) will come after the subject.

In sentences that begin with a subordinate clause, the second (independent) clause will have inversion of the verb and subject. The subordinate clause is the first element in the sentence, so the verb must be second, and the subject is third.

Furthermore, adverbs that modify the entire sentence come before the verb in subordinate clauses, whereas they normally occur after the verb in regular sentences. Besides inte (not), these adverbs include: aldrig (never), alltid (always), alltså (so, then), möjligtvis (maybe), gärna (gladly, with pleasure), bara (only) and säkert (surely).

Han säger att han inte kan åka bil till Stockholm. He said that he cannot come to Stockholm by car.

39. Asking Questions

Yes/No questions: Invert the subject and verb so that the verb begins the question.

Arbetar han? Does he work?
Regnar det? Is it raining?

Question Words: The question word begins the question, and the verb comes next, followed by the subject.

Var bor Sten? Where does Sten live?
Vad gör Elsa? What does Elsa do?

40. Holiday Phrases