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Swedish

Swedish is a Germanic tongue and one of the Nordic languages. It is mainly spoken in Sweden, but even in Finland, where it is the second official language of the country (Finnish is not a Nordic language - it belongs to the Finno – Ugric language family).

The Swedish language is spoken by approximately 9 million people. It has close links to Danish and Norwegian. Swedish and Danish belong to the East Nordic branch, and Norwegian to the West Nordic branch. People who speak Danish, Norwegian or Swedish are able to understand each other and also to read literature in the different languages.

Links to information about the Swedish language:

History of the Swedish language: www.vara.se/Language

A Short History of the Swedish Language: www.atelierbox.com

Swedish Language: www.wikipedia.org

Swedish Language and Culture: www.members.tripod.com

Say Hello to the World … Say Hello to the Swedish Language: www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/hello/swedish.html

Swedish Language History: www.online-languagetranslators.com

 

 

The Swedish alphabet consists of the following letters:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzåäö

å, ä, ö only exist in certain languages.

There are two genders, "en"-words and "ett"-words. The majority of  words are "en"-words.

 

Indefinite and definite articles

"En" and "ett" are the indefinite articles in Swedish, equivalent to the English 'a'. The indefinite article precedes the noun as in English:
en bok a book
en student a student
ett bord a table
 

The definite article, however, is suffixed to the noun. En-words take the suffix -en, and ett-words take the suffix -et. If a noun already ends in a vowel, it just takes -n or -t

en bok
boken		 a book
the book
en pojke
pojken		 a boy
the boy
ett bord
bordet		 a table
the table
ett äpple
äpplet		 an apple
the apple

 

Verbs

Verbs don't change forms for person or number. Swedish has just one form. In the present tense verbs end (with only a handful of exceptions) in -r.
    Kvinnan har en bok.
    The woman has a book.

    Kvinnorna har flera böcker.
    The women have several books.

The verbs can be divided into four groups:

Group the  imperative the present the past the supine the infinitive
1* arbeta
work		 arbetar
work/(s)		 arbetade
worked		 arbetat
worked		 att arbeta
to work
2* ring
ring		 ringer
ring/(s)		 ringde
rang		 ringt
rung		 att ringa
to ring
3* tro
believe		 tror
believe/(s)		 trodde
believed		 trott
believed		 att tro
to believe
4* skriv
write		 skriver
write/(s)		 skrev
wrote		 skrivit
written		 att skriva
to write

* there are three weak groups (groups 1 - 3) where the past tense ends in -e.

** one strong group, where there is no past tense ending

The infinitive ends in -a in all groups except group no. 3

Nouns

Nouns can be divided into six groups with different plural endings.

1. -or (flicka - flickor) 

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 flicka  
girl		 flickor  
girls

 

2. -ar (pojke - pojkar 

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 pojke  
boy		 pojkar
 boys

 

3. -er (bakong - balkonger) 

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 balkong
balcony 		 bakonger  balconies

 

4. r (händelse - händelser)

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 händelse 
event		 händelser events

 

5. -n (äpple - äpplen) 

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 äpple  
apple		 äpplen
 apples

 

6. 0  (lärare - lärare) 

x sing plur
Swe
Eng		 lärare
 teacher		 lärare  teachers

Adjectives

Adjectives are declined with respect to gender and number

 
x indefinite, sing indefinite, plur definite, sing definite. plur
Swe
Eng		 en gul bil
a yellow car 
 gula bilar
yellow cars		 den gula bilen
the yellow car		 de gula bilarna
the yellow cars
Swe
Eng		 ett gult hus
a yellow house		 gula hus
yellow houses		 det gula huset
the yellow house		 de gula husen
the yellow houses

 

Comparisons

Most adjectives are compared by means of endings:

"-are" and "-est" 
Swe Eng
fin fine
finare finer
finast (the) finest


Adjectives containing two or more syllables are compared with "mer" and "mest" (more and most):
 
Swe Eng
intressant interesting
mer intressant more interesting
mest intressant (the) most interesting

Some adjectives have special forms like
Swe Eng
god good
bättre better
bäst best

 

Pronouns

 
Subject Object Genititiv
jag - I mig - me min/mitt/mina* - my/mine 
du - you dig - you din/ditt/dina* - your/yours
han - he honom/sig - him hans/sin/sitt/sina - his
hon - she henne/sig - her hennes/sin/sitt/sina - her/hers
den/det - it den/det/sig - it dess/sin/sitt/sina - its
vi - we oss - us vår/vårt/våra - our/ours
ni - you er - your er/ert/era - your/yours
de - they dem - them deras/sin/sitt/sina - their/theirs

* depending on "en" or "ett" words or plural

 

 

Webmaster: 2003-09-14