Svenska Grammatik Duolingo

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Introduction 1 · 2022-03-18
Welcome to the Duolingo Swedish course!
Hi everybody! Welcome to the Duolingo Swedish course! Swedish is a North Germanic language
spoken by about 10 million people, primarily in Sweden and Finland. Swedish and English are not
too distantly related, so you might see some similarities that will help you out along the way.
Swedish is also closely related to Danish and Norwegian, so if you speak one of these languages
already, learning Swedish will be a breeze. We are so glad that you have decided to learn Swedish,
and we hope that you enjoy the course! :)
A bit of grammar
Swedish and English work in pretty similar ways, which is good news for English speakers who
want to learn Swedish! Some things are even simpler in Swedish than in English. You know how in
English we say "I am" but "you are"? In Swedish, verbs are in the same form regardless of whatever
word comes before. In fancy linguistics terminology (if you're into that sort of thing), verbs in
Swedish don't agree for grammatical person or number. This means that the verb är ("to be" in the
present tense) never changes, even when it does in English.
He is a man. = Han är en man.

You are a man. = Du är en man.
I am a man. = Jag är en man.
Pretty simple, isn't it? It's funny how Swedish is simpler than English in this way.
In other ways, English is simpler than Swedish. Swedish has something that English doesn't have
called "grammatical gender," which basically means that every noun (person, place, thing, or idea)
in the language is assigned to one of two categories: en-words (also called common gender or
utrum in Swedish) or ett-words (also called neuter gender or neutrum in Swedish).
These two grammatical gender categories have nothing to do with actual gender. It's ett barn 'a
child' (neuter) but en man 'a man' (common) and en kvinna 'a woman' (common). Other languages
(like French) have grammatical genders like feminine and masculine, while others (like German and
Russian) have three categories: feminine, masculine, and neuter. Swedish just has two: common
and neuter. This is just a sneak preview. We'll get into this more later… :)
Pronouns
Pronouns are little words like he, I, me, and her. Here are some of the Swedish pronouns that you
learn in this lesson:
learn in this lesson:
Swedish English
jag I
du you (singular)
han he
hon she
det it
Pronunciation
Swedish and English are pronounced pretty similarly, but Swedish has some extra letters: ä, ö, and
å. Here are some other notable differences in pronunciation:
Swedish English
a always open, like in all or father
j like y in English yellow
ä like in hat or pet
We'll talk more about pronunciation as you go.
Three words with irregular pronunciations are taught in this lesson:

jag → the at the end isn't always pronounced in quick speech
det → the at the end is silent
och → the at the end is silent.
Vocabulary
The table below lists all of the words that you encounter in the lesson. A table like this will be
included in the Tips and Notes for each skill in case you want to make ashcards or tables on your
own!
Swedish English
jag I
du you (singular)
han he
hon she
det it
är am, is, are (present tense of "to be")
en a(n)
och and
inte not
vem who
glad happy
en man a man
Swedish English
en man a man
en kvinna a woman
en pojke a boy
en icka a girl
Basics 1 · 2018-10-25
Two genders – but four pronouns!
That seems a bit overkill - but it is actually quite logical (we Swedes like logic).
First of all you might wonder what a gender is. Well, there are two kinds of gender – natural (male
and female) and grammatical gender.
English only uses natural gender ("he" for males, "she" for females and "it" for objects) whereas
Romance languages such as French use natural genders ("he" and "she") as grammatical gender as
well (everything is thus either a "he" or a "she" in French).
Swedish has a double system. When talking about people, we use the natural gender (he and she)
but when we aren't talking about humans, you have to look at the grammatical gender. Swedish
words belong either to the en-words (also called n-words, common gender or utrum) or to the ett-
words (also called t-words, neuter or neutrum).
The names en-words and ett-words are derived from the inde nite article (singular) of each group,
both corresponding to a(n) in English.
Examples
Female Male En-words Ett-words
hon she han he den it det it
Who? What? Where? 1 · 2022-03-18
Congratulations on making it through the rst lesson! That's the rst step. Well done! Here are
some tips and notes to help you out as you continue.
You? You guys? You all? Y'all?
In English, we only have one word for "you." If you're talking to one person, you say "you." If you're
talking to two people, or three people, or four people, you still can say "you," or depending on
where you're from and what dialect you speak, you might say something like "y'all" or "you guys." In
Swedish, there are two separate words for "you": du (for when you're talking to one person) and ni
(for when you're talking to two people or more). Think of it like a mandatory "y'all." In Swedish, if
you're ever talking to more than one person, you must use ni instead of du. Here are some
examples:
Lars, du är här. = Lars, you are here. (because you're addressing one person)
Lars och Anna, ni är här. = Lars and Anna, you are here. (because you're addressing multiple people)
Lars och Anna, ni är här. = Lars and Anna, you are here. (because you're addressing multiple people)
In this lesson, we also introduce you to a few more plural pronouns:
Swedish English
vi we
ni you (plural = y'all)
de they
Adding these to the pronouns that you learned in the last lesson, here is a table of all the pronouns
that you should know after completing this lesson:
Swedish English
jag I
du you (singular)
han he
hon she
det it
vi we
ni you (plural = y'all)
de they
Gender
If you read the Tips and Notes from the last lesson, you might remember that Swedish has
something that English doesn't have called "grammatical gender," which basically means that every
noun (person, place, thing, or idea) in the language is assigned to one of two categories: en-words
(also called common gender or utrum in Swedish) or ett-words (also called neuter gender or
neutrum in Swedish).
These two grammatical gender categories have nothing to do with actual gender. It's ett barn 'a
child' (neuter) but en man 'a man' (common) and en kvinna 'a woman' (common). Other languages
(like French) have grammatical genders like feminine and masculine, while others (like German and
Russian) have three categories: feminine, masculine, and neuter. Swedish just has two: common
and neuter.
Why is grammatical gender important? Because it dictates how we say "a/an" in Swedish. If the
word belongs to the category of en-words, it will take the word en to mean "a/an."
en kvinna = a woman
en man = a man
en pojke = a boy
en katt = a cat
If the word belongs to the category of ett-words, it will take the word ett to mean "a/an."
ett äpple = an apple

ett barn = a child
At rst, it might be dif cult to keep track of the gender of each word as you learn it, but you'll get
used to it soon enough! Practice makes perfect. :)
Questions?
To turn a sentence into a question in Swedish, you switch the order of the subject and the verb.
Jag sitter. = I am sitting. →

Sitter jag? = Am I sitting?
Jag har bröd. = I have bread. →

Har jag bröd? = Do I have bread?
De har ett barn. = They have a child. →

Har de ett barn? = Do they have a child?
Verbs, verbs, verbs
In the last lesson, you learned the verb är (is, are, am, be). In this lesson, you will learn the verbs
har (have, has), sitter (sit, sits, is sitting, are sitting), and vet (know, knows). Notice that Swedish
doesn't differentiate between I am sitting and I sit. Both are Jag sitter. Nice and simple!
Pronunciation
Three quick pronunciation notes for this lesson! You're introduced to a new sound (and a new
letter): ö. The letter ö is pronounced close to oo in book. You'll get lots more practice later.
The word de (they) is always pronounced as dom in modern Swedish, even though it's not spelled
that way. Don't let yourself get tripped up by that, though!
Now, let's take a look at the word Sverige (Sweden). Even though there's a g in the word, it's
pronounced like a y. This happens a lot in Swedish when a g is found before certain vowels, but
we'll talk more about that letter. For now, just know that Sverige is pronounced like Sveh-ree-yeh
and not Sveh-ree-geh.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
vi we
ni you (plural)
de they
har have, has
sitter sit(s), is/are sitting
vet know(s)
vad what
var where
i in
Swedish English
där there
här here
ett a, one
ett barn a child
en katt a cat
(ett) vatten water
(ett) bröd bread
ett äpple an apple
Sverige Sweden
Common Phrases 1 · 2018-10-25
Välkommen!
This means "welcome", but we don't use it in the expression you're welcome. That would be
varsågod.
”I speak -ska”
Nope, Swedes don’t have a particular thing for ska music but most names of languages are derived
from the name of the country, the adjective or the nationality with the ending –ska added to it.
Examples
Country Adjective Nationality Language
Sverige Sweden svensk(t) swedish en svensk a Swede svenska Swedish (language)
England England engelsk(t) English en engelsman an Englishman engelska English (language)
Oh, and as you have probably already noticed, we do not capitalize adjectives, nationalities or
languages (only countries). Unless they happen to come rst in the sentence, of course.
Food 1 · 2018-10-25
”A glass and glass-the”
Swedish uses two separate inde nite articles, both equivalent to the English a(n), en and ett. The
former is used with en-words and the latter with ett-words, hence the names of the two groups.
When it comes to the de nite form, it gets weird.
Swedish does not use a separate article like English the, instead, we add an ending to the word in
question. Guess which one!
en-words take -en and ett-words take -et.
However, we do not like to have two vowels next to each other (we just think it sounds wrong). So
should the word end in a vowel, we just add the corresponding consonant.
Sometimes we drop the last -e- or -a- in the word (e.g. “en gaffel” – “gaffeln”) but you don't need to worry about that quite yet!
Examples
Inde nite singular De nite singular
en sked a spoon skeden the spoon
ett glas a glass glaset the glass
Greetings 2 · 2023-08-22
Greetings
In the last lesson, you learned the building blocks of sentences in Swedish — grammatical gender,
pronouns, basic word order — to help you describe yourself and those around you. In this lesson,
we'll take a step back from new grammar and learn some greetings! Here are the greetings that
you will learn in this lesson:
Swedish English
Hej! Hello!
God morgon! Good morning!
God kväll! Good evening!
Välkommen! Welcome!
Languages
In Swedish, language names, like svenska (Swedish) and engelska (English), are never capitalized,
unless they are found at the beginning of the sentence.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
hej hello
välkommen welcome
god good
talar speak(s)
bor live(s)
heter is named, is called
svenska Swedish
engelska English
en morgon a morning
en kväll an evening
Swedish
en kväll English
an evening
Food 1 2 · 2023-08-22
Food is yummy, isn't it? In this lesson, you'll learn how to start talking about your favorite foods in
Swedish.
Questions
It's always helpful to learn how to ask questions in another language so that you can more fully
participate in the conversation and unleash your inner curiosity about the world around you! At this
point in the course, a quick review on how to form yes-or-no questions in Swedish might be
helpful.
Basically, you just put the verb (the action word) at the beginning of the sentence! Not too bad,
right? You'll come across a bunch of questions in this lesson, but here are some examples to get
you started:
Mannen äter soppa. (The man is eating soup.) →

Äter mannen soppa? (Is the man eating soup?)
Hästen läser en bok. (The horse is reading a book.) →

Läser hästen en bok? (Is the horse reading a book?)
You'll get the hang of it in no time!
Cups, glasses, heaps, piles
In English, we have to say "a glass of water" or "a cup of coffee." Swedish is a bit simpler! You can
drop the word "of" in your translation and simply say ett glas vatten (literally, a glass water = a
glass of water) or en kopp kaffe (literally, a cup coffee = a cup of coffee). This might be familiar to
you if you have studied another Germanic language. If not, it might sound a little weird in your
head for a bit, but you'll get used to it in no time! :)
Cooking
In English, you can say "I am cooking" or "He is cooking." In Swedish, you have to specify what you
are cooking with the verb laga. If you already have a speci c thing that you are cooking in mind,
you can say something like Jag lagar kyckling (I am cooking chicken), just like in English. If you're
just talking about cooking in general, though, and you have no speci c food in mind, you have to
add the word mat (food) to the sentence: Jag lagar mat (I am cooking food). You can't just say Jag
lagar (I am cooking) — the sentence feels wrong, like it's missing a word at the end. In fancy
linguistic terms (if you're into that sort of thing), laga is obligatorily transitive in Swedish, while
cook is not obligatorily transitive in English. It's just a tiny difference between Swedish and English,
but it has the tendency to strike people unawares.
Peppers, peppers, peppers
The Swedish word peppar does not refer to bell peppers. A bell pepper is en paprika. English has
only one word for both: "pepper."
Pronunciation
Do you remember how the word köper (buy) is pronounced with a soft k? In this lesson, you
encounter a few more words with soft k: kyckling (chicken) and kött (meat). As a general rule, is
pronounced "hard" (like the English ) before the vowels a, o, u, and å, and it is pronounced "soft"
(closer to the English ) before the vowels e, i, y, ä, and ö. Similar things will happen with the letter
later on, so keep your eyes peeled… :)
Vocabulary
Swedish English
laga (mat) to cook
en sk a sh
ett kött a meat
en pasta a pasta
en soppa a soup
en kyckling a chicken
en mat a food
en frukost a breakfast
en frukt a fruit
en ost a cheese
en smörgås a sandwich
ett glas a glass
en tomat a tomato
ett socker a sugar
en öl a beer
en peppar a pepper
ett ägg an egg
ett salt a salt
en meny a menu
Actions 1 · 2022-03-18
In this lesson, you'll get the basics of the de nite suf x, and you'll get more practice building basic
sentences to describe yourself and those around you.
The de nite suf x
In Swedish, there is no standalone word that means the. Instead, we add a suf x to the end of a
word. Remember how Swedish has two grammatical genders (en-words and ett-words)? Well, these
two categories of words take different suf xes that mean the.
For en-words, you add -n (or -en, if there's a consonant beforehand) to the end of the word. Here
are some examples that you'll come across in the lesson:
en kvinna (a woman) → kvinnan (the woman)

en man (a man) → mannen (the man)
en icka (a girl) → ickan (the girl)
en pojke (a boy) → pojken (the boy)
For ett-words, you add -t (or -et, if there's a consonant beforehand) to the end of the word. Here are
some examples that you'll come across in the lesson:
ett barn (a child) → barnet (the child)

ett äpple (an apple) → äpplet (the apple)
This is just a sneak preview, and we'll go more in-depth in the next few lessons. Using a suf x to
mean "the" instead of a separate word might be confusing at rst, especially if you haven't studied
a language that does something like this before, so don't beat yourself up if you make mistakes at
rst. You will have plenty of practice over the course of the next few lessons, and you will get used
to it in no time!
"It"
The two grammatical genders of Swedish come into play once again when you're trying to say "it."
If you're referring to something that is an en-word, you will use the word den. If you're referring to
something that is an ett-word, you will use the word det.
Var är boken? Where is the book?

Jag har den. I have it. (because you're referring to bok, which is an en-word)
Var är äpplet? Where is the apple?

Jag har det. I have it. (because you're referring to äpple, which is an ett-word)
When you're introducing something ("It is a…"), however, you use det regardless of the gender of
the following word:
Det är en bok. (It is a book.)

Det är ett äpple. (It is an apple.)
Present tense
At this point in the course, you've come across several verbs (action words): köper (buy), ser (see), är
(be), har (have), etc. Just like in English, Swedish verbs have different forms for different tenses
(present, past, perfect). If you're talking about something that happened yesterday, or ve years
ago, you use the past tense. If you're talking about something that is happening now, or happens
recurrently, you use the present tense. So far, we've been focused on having you learn present
tense forms, so you'll be talking about the present until a little later in the course.
"How do I use the present tense?", you might ask. The present tense can be used to describe things
that you are happening in the present, right now.
Jag köper en bok.

I am buying a book.
You can also use it to describe things that happen repeatedly.
Jag köper en bok varje dag.

I buy a book every day.
Pronunciation
Just a few quick pronunciation notes for this lesson!
Notice the pronunciation of köper, which might be transcribed as shö-per in English spelling. As a
general rule, before ö (and a few other vowels), the letter k is pronounced like sh. We'll get more
into the details of this later, but for now, just know that köper is not the only word where k is
pronounced this way.
Also, just a quick reminder that the common words det (it) and de (they) have irregular
pronunciations. The -t at the end of det is silent, and de is pronounced like dom.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
mannen the man
kvinnan the woman
ickan the girl
äpplet the apple
pojken the boy
barnet the child
äter eat(s)
köper buy(s)
dricker drink(s)
ser see(s)
läser read(s)
den it (for en-words)
(ett) ris rice
(en) mjölk milk
en bok a book
ett brev a letter
en tidning a newspaper
Animals 1 1 · 2022-03-18
In this lesson, you might start to notice just how similar English and Swedish are. A lot of Swedish
words for animals closely resemble their English equivalents: katt (cat), hund (dog → think
"hound"), fågel (bird → think "fowl"). Swedish is full of words that are very similar to their English
counterparts, called cognates. Make note of these similarities when they come up; it makes
learning vocabulary a lot easier!
The de nite suf x
Remember how in Swedish, there is no standalone word that means the? Instead, we add one of
two suf xes to the end of a word, depending on the grammatical gender of the noun. For en-words,
you add -n (or -en, if there's a consonant beforehand) to the end of the word. For ett-words, you
add -t (or -et, if there's a consonant beforehand) to the end of the word:
en kvinna (a woman) → kvinnan (the woman)

ett barn (a child) → barnet (the child)
In this lesson, you'll get more practice with the de nite forms of nouns with animal words! There's
one further complexity that you'll be introduced to in this lesson. If an en-word ends in an
unstressed -el, you just add -n to form the de nite instead of -en. There are two words in this
lesson that this applies to: fågel (bird) and spindel (spider).
en fågel (a bird) → fågeln (the bird)

en spindel (a spider) → spindeln (the spider)
For now, you can just memorize these two forms, but keep in mind that these forms are not unique;
they're part of a greater pattern in the Swedish language. You'll come across more -el words
throughout the course, and you'll notice that this pattern extends to these words, too.
Names, names, names
In a previous lesson, you learned that Jag heter… means My name is… You can use the same
construction to say the name of other things, too.
Älgen heter Anna. (The moose's name is Anna.)

Björnen heter Hans. (The bear's name is Hans.)
Vad heter vargen? (What is the wolf's name?)
Pronunciation
There are three small pronunciation notes for this lesson. First off, we have a new letter — å —
which is pronounced closer to the English o sound than the a sound.
You'll notice that the words älg (moose) and varg (wolf) are pronounced like älj and varj, not with a
hard g at the end. As a general rule, clusters of -rg and -lg at the end of the word are pronounced
like -rj and -lj, respectively. There are plenty of words with these pronunciations throughout the
course, so you'll get used to this quirk in no time!
You'll also notice that the initial d- in the word djur (animal) is silent, so the word is pronounced
just like jur. This happens with a lot of consonants before j: dj, lj, gj, and hj are all pronounced just
as j.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
en älg a moose
älgen the moose

Swedish English
ett djur an animal
djuret the animal
en anka a duck
ankan the duck
en häst a horse
hästen the horse
en hund a dog
hunden the dog
en björn a bear
björnen the bear
en fågel a bird
fågeln the bird
en spindel a spider
spindeln the spider
en varg a wolf
vargen the wolf
en mus a mouse
musen the mouse
katten the cat
De nite forms 1 · 2018-10-25
Inde nite and de nite singular
All Swedish words are divided into two groups: en-words (or utrum) and ett-words (or neutrum).
Unfortunately, you cannot know to which group a certain word belongs but there are some tips to
have a greater chance of guessing right.
Most words are en-words

Most words designating a person are en-words ¹
Have a look at the ending, many endings take the same article (e.g. –a² , –ing and –het are
always en-words)
¹ One common exception is ett barn a child

² The only exceptions are ett öga, ett öra and ett hjärta.
Forms
The inde nite singular always takes an article. en-words take en and ett-words take ett
To form the de nite form you simply add -en to the en-words and -et to the ett-words.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
en bok a book boken the book
Liebe Deutschsprachige & Lieve Nederlandstalige A special warning to you: in the vast majority of
the cases, the ending -en is not a plural ending, as is German and Dutch! "Studenten" means the
student. The plural of "student" is in fact "studenter).
Special cases
Swedish does not like to have two vowels next to each other, so if a word ends in a vowel, we drop
the -e- in the ending.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
en soppa a soup soppan the soup
ett kaffe a coffee kaffet the coffee
Sometimes, we do keep the -e- in the ending, but we drop the -e- in the preceding syllable instead.
This happens to ett-words ending in –el, –en, and –er.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
ett vatten a water vattnet the water
socker a sugar sockret the sugar
But why, oh, why do you do this to me?

Because “vattenet”, “sockeret” would be too blurry and sound way too Danish!
Phrases 1 · 2022-03-18
In this lesson, we'll be taking a step back from new vocabulary words and grammar to learn some
important phrases that you can use to communicate your basic needs in Swedish!
Varsågod
While most of the phrases that you'll learn in this lesson are pretty straightforward, there are a few
sticking points that need a bit of explanation.
The common phrase varsågod can have two meanings, depending on the context in which you're
using it. The simplest meaning is you're welcome, as a response to tack (thank you). Here's an
example of a context in which varsågod means you're welcome:
Person A: Tack så mycket! (Thank you very much!)

Person B: Varsågod! (You're welcome!)
Pretty simple, right? The other usage, which doesn't have an exact English counterpart, is said
when you're giving something to somebody else. For example, if you're at a restaurant, the waiter
when you're giving something to somebody else. For example, if you're at a restaurant, the waiter
might say varsågod when dropping off the food at the table, or you might say varsågod when
handing over a le to a coworker. In this context, varsågod might be best translated as here you go.
Here's a skeleton conversation in which varsågod carries this meaning:
Person A (handing over a le to another person): Varsågod! (Here you go!)

Person B: Tack så mycket! (Thank you very much!)
A quick note: if you're addressing two or more people, you should say varsågoda instead of
varsågod. For now, you can just memorize this, but it follows the pattern of Swedish adjective
declension that we'll talk about later in the course.
Hallå
Another phrase that doesn't have a great English translation is hallå, which can mean hello but is
more commonly used to call people to attention. If you're trying to say something in a noisy room
of family members, you might shout hallå to get their attention, for example. It's a great word that
any Swedish learner should know, but it can be a bit dif cult for native English speakers to nail it
down because there's no good translation. As always, practice makes perfect! You'll get the hang of
it in no time.
Typing
At this point, you have encountered all three "special" Swedish letters: å, ä, and ö. You'll have
plenty of time to get used to these new letters (and the sounds they make) over the course of the
tree! Because English doesn't have these sounds, you can't nd them on a typical English keyboard.
When you're doing a lesson on Duolingo, there are buttons by the text box that you can click to
access these letters. If you want to type these letters more easily, you can go into your computer
settings and add an International keyboard layout or a Swedish keyboard layout to your list of
keyboard input options. A quick Google search will walk you through the process if you need help!
Pronunciation
There are two pronunciation notes for this lesson. First, take note of the /rs/ cluster in the words
ursäkta (excuse me) and varsågod (you're welcome/here you go). You'll hear that it makes a sh-
sound. This happens when r and s are next to each other, even across words (e.g. when there is an r
at the end of one word and an s at the beginning of the next word).
You'll also notice that kanske is pronounced as if it were written kan-she (or, depending on the
dialect, kan-sje with the Swedish sj-sound, to be discussed later).
Vocabulary
Swedish English
ja yes
nej no
tack thank you
tack så mycket thank you very much
ursäkta excuse me
Swedish English
hej då goodbye
god natt good night
en natt a night
älskar love(s)
kanske maybe
eller or
behöver need(s)
hallå hello
varsågod you're welcome, here you are
snälla please
förlåt sorry
Pronouns objective 1 · 2018-10-25
Pronouns and pronounciation
By now, you have already learnt the subject pronouns. In this lesson you will learn the objective
forms. Pronouns are used a lot which might explain why not all of them are pronounced the way
they are spelt. In very informal Swedish you might even nd these pronouns written as they
actually are pronounced, as in the brackets (crazy, right!).
Subject Object
jag [ja] I mig [mej] me
du you dig [dej] you
han he honom him
hon she henne her
den it den it
det [de] it det [de] it
vi we oss us
ni you er you
de [dom] they dem [dom] them
How do you know which “it” to use? If “it” refers back to a word in a preceding sentence, you use
den to replace en-words and det to replace ett-words. If “it” does not refer to a preceding word (as
in “It is raining today”), we always use “det” (which would be “Det regnar i dag”). We also use "det"
in the phrase "there is/are" (which would be "Det nns" in Swedish).
De nite Forms 1 · 2022-03-18
Remember how en kvinna means a woman, while kvinnan means the woman? In this lesson, you're
going to learn how to say the de nite form (the form that means "the X") for all of the nouns that
you've learned so far.
De nite Forms
In Swedish, the de nite form of a noun is created by adding on a variety of suf xes, depending on
the grammatical gender of the word and whether the stem ends in a consonant (a hard sound, like
b) or a vowel (an open sound, like a, i, or ö). If you're a native English speaker, you might nd it
strange at rst, because you're probably used to "the" being a standalone word. With a little
practice, you'll know the de nite suf xes like the back of your hand!
To create the de nite suf x of an en-word, you just add the suf x -n to the end of the root.
en stuga (a cabin) → stugan (the cabin)

en pojke (a boy) → pojken (the boy)
en soppa (a soup) → soppan (the soup)
If the stem ends in a consonant, however, you'll need to add the suf x -en instead.
en sk (a sh) → sken (the sh)

en mat (a food) → maten (the food) en frukt (a fruit) → frukten (the fruit)
Easy as pie, right? To say the de nite form of an ett-word, you just add the suf x -t to the end of
the root.
ett äpple (an apple) → äpplet (the apple)
Just like with en-words, if the stem ends in a consonant, you'll need to add the suf x -et instead.
ett brev (a letter) → brevet (the letter) (ett) salt (salt) → saltet (the salt) (ett) bröd (bread) → brödet
(the bread)
The only "exceptions" to these rules come about with words that end in -el, -er, and -en, which can
do funny things when they turn into the de nite form. You saw in a previous lesson that en fågel (a
bird) and en spindel (a spider) became fågeln (the bird) and spindeln (the spider), even though we
would expect them to be spindelen och fågelen according to the rules listed above. You'll see more
words that follow this pattern throughout the course.
Something similar happens with certain words ending in -er and -en. The last vowel of the word
magically disappears!
(ett) socker (sugar) → sockret (the sugar) (NOT sockeret)

(ett) vatten (water) → vattnet (the water) (NOT vattenet)
These types of "exceptions" are actually pretty predictable, so don't get too worked up about them.
For now, you can just memorize the forms that you need to know and learn the rest later.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
en stuga a cabin
stugan the cabin
osten the cheese
sken the sh
Swedish English
maten the food
frukten the fruit
boken the book
tomaten the tomato
frukosten the breakfast
smörgåsen the sandwich
kycklingen the chicken
mjölken the milk
tidningen the newspaper
pastan the pasta
soppan the soup
ägget the egg
brevet the letter
brödet the bread
saltet the salt
vattnet the water
sockret the sugar
köttet the meat
riset the rice
Plural Forms 1 · 2022-03-18
So far, you've been talking about things in the singular: a cat, one dog, a book, etc. But what if you
wanted to talk about two cats, or three dogs, or four books? In this lesson, you'll learn how to form
the plural in Swedish so that you can do just that!
En-words
Like a lot of other things in Swedish, grammatical gender plays an important role in how you form
the plural (the -s form in English) in Swedish. Here are some rules that you can use to form the
plural of en-words:
If the word ends in -a, the plural ending is -or:
en icka (a girl) → ickor (girls)

en stuga (a cabin) → stugor (cabins)
en anka (a duck) → ankor (ducks)
The vast majority of en-words that do not end in -a take the plural ending -ar:
en pojke (a boy) → pojkar (boys)

en tidning (a newspaper) → tidningar (newspapers)
en häst (a horse) → hästar (horses)
en hund (a dog) → hundar (dogs)
Some en-words that do not end in -a, including words with stress on the nal syllable, take the
plural ending -er:
en katt (a cat) → katter (cats)

en station (a station) → stationer (stations)
en elefant (an elephant) → elefanter
Remember those pesky words ending in -el, -er, and -en that did funny things when we added the
de nite suf x? Think vatten → vattnet? These same words also lose a vowel when we add the
plural suf x:
en spindel (a spider) → spindlar (spiders) (NOT spindelar)

en fågel (a bird) → fåglar (birds) (NOT fågelar)
en cykel (a bicycle) → cyklar (bicycles) (NOT cykelar)
Ett-words
And here are the rules for forming the plural of ett-words!
If an ett-word ends in a vowel, it usually takes the plural ending -n. So far, you've only learned one
ett-word that ends in a vowel:
ett äpple (an apple) → äpplen (apples)
All other ett-words (i.e. those that do not end in a vowel) stay the same in the plural! Easy peasy!
ett barn (a child) → barn (children)

ett brev (a letter) → brev (letters)
ett djur (an animal) → djur (animals)
Irregulars
Like most languages on Earth, Swedish not without exceptions to the rules! In this lesson, you'll
learn two words with an irregular plural form:
en man (a man) → män (men)

en bok (a book) → böcker (books)
You'll notice that män sounds a lot like its counterpart men in English, which is also an irregular
plural. This shared irregularity stems from the fact that Swedish and English are related languages.
Pretty cool, right?
At rst, it might seem like there are a billion plural rules to memorize, but you'll get lots of practice
throughout the course. Have no fear! You'll get the hang of it in no time at all! :)
Vocabulary
Swedish English
era several
många many
Swedish English
några some
en cykel a bicycle
cyklar bicycles
pojkar boys
älgar moose (plural)
hundar dogs
tidningar newspapers
hästar horses
katter cats
spindlar spiders
smörgåsar sandwiches
fåglar birds
kvinnor women
ickor girls
stugor cabins
ankor ducks
män men
barn children
djur animals
äpplen apples
brev letters
böcker books
Basics 2 3 · 2023-08-22
Two genders – but four pronouns!
That seems a bit overkill - but it is actually quite logical (we Swedes like logic).
First of all you might wonder what a gender is. Well, there are two kinds of gender – natural (male
and female) and grammatical gender.
English only uses natural gender ("he" for males, "she" for females and "it" for objects) whereas
Romance languages such as French use natural genders ("he" and "she") as grammatical gender as
well (everything is thus either a "he" or a "she" in French).
Swedish has a double system. When talking about people, we use the natural gender (he and she)
but when we aren't talking about humans, you have to look at the grammatical gender. Swedish
words belong either to the en-words (also called n-words, common gender or utrum) or to the ett-
words (also called t-words, neuter or neutrum).
The names en-words and ett-words are derived from the inde nite article (singular) of each group,
both corresponding to a(n) in English.
Examples
Examples
Female Male En-words Ett-words
hon she han he den it det it
Food 2 2 · 2023-08-22
”A glass and glass-the”
Swedish uses two separate inde nite articles, both equivalent to the English a(n), en and ett. The
former is used with en-words and the latter with ett-words, hence the names of the two groups.
When it comes to the de nite form, it gets weird.
Swedish does not use a separate article like English the, instead, we add an ending to the word in
question. Guess which one!
en-words take -en and ett-words take -et.
should the word end in a vowel, we just add the corresponding consonant.
Sometimes we drop the last -e- or -a- in the word (e.g. “en gaffel” – “gaffeln”) but you don't need to worry about that quite yet!
Examples
Inde nite singular De nite singular
en sked a spoon skeden the spoon
ett glas a glass glaset the glass
De nite Plural 1 · 2022-03-18
In the previous lesson, you learned how to say things like "dogs," "cats," and "animals"? But what if
you wanted to say "the dogs," "the cats," or "the animals"? In this lesson, you'll learn how!
De nite Plural
In order to say the Xs in Swedish, you'll use a form of the noun called the de nite plural. Here are
some quick rules to help you turn the plural form of a noun into the de nite plural form!
If the plural ends in -r, the de nite plural ending -na is added to the end of the word:
kvinnor (women) → kvinnorna (the women)

katter (cats) → katterna (the cats)
pojkar (boys) → pojkarna (the boys)
böcker (books) → böckerna (the books)
If the plural form ends in -n (i.e. ett-words ending in a vowel), the de nite plural ending -a is added
If the plural form ends in -n (i.e. ett-words ending in a vowel), the de nite plural ending -a is added
to the end of the word. So far you only know one word that follows this pattern:
äpplen (apples) → äpplena
If the plural form is identical to the singular form (i.e. ett-words that don't end in a vowel), the
de nite plural ending -en is added to the end of the word.
brev (letters) → breven (the letters)

barn (children) → barnen (the children)
djur (animals) → djuren (the animals)
Don't get confused by the fact that -en can be both the de nite plural ending for ett-words and the
de nite singular ending for en-words. The overlap is tricky, but practice makes perfect!
Note that the irregular plural män (men) becomes männen (the men) in the de nite plural.
Vocabulary
Swedish English
katterna the cats
pojkarna the boys
hästarna the horses
hundarna the dogs
ickorna the girls
kvinnorna the women
tidningarna the newspapers
stugorna the cabins
fåglarna the birds
böckerna the books
ankorna the ducks
smörgåsarna the sandwiches
äpplena the apples
breven the letters
djuren the animals
barnen the children
männen the men
Animals 2 · 2023-08-22
Fågeln och spindeln
Hmm... did you spot the de nite article at the end? Looks a bit strange, doesn't it? One would have
expected "fågelen" and "spindelen". Well, to be honest, you can - in some Swedish regions (in the
South for instance).
The en-word endings –el, –en, –er and –ar are very hungry endings so they eat up the following -
The en-word endings –el, –en, –er and –ar are very hungry endings so they eat up the following -
e-, leaving us with only a consonant.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
en fågel a bird fågeln the bird
en spindel a spider spindeln the spider
A Møøse once bit my sister...
The national animal of Sweden is The King of the Forest, Alces alces, in American English known
as the moose. In British English, this animal is called as an elk. Just to make things more
complicated, there's an American animal called elk which is not at all the same animal as the
moose or what the Brits call an elk, this is Cervus canadensis, also known as a wapiti (in Swedish:
en wapitihjort, but we don't have them here).
Complications don't stop there. The normal plural of both moose and elk is the same as the
singular, so that it's one moose, several moose and one elk, several elk. The Swedish word behaves
perfectly normal though: en älg, älgen in the singular, and in the plural: älgar, älgarna.
There are lots of moose in Sweden. The yearly hunt is a big deal, notably the king likes to shoot
the big animal. Moose can be a big traf c problem. There are road signs with moose on them to
warn for them, these have become a sort of tourist symbol for Sweden, and especially German
tourists have been known to steal those signs as souvenirs. Young moose are not shy and often like
to enter people's gardens to eat apples.
There's also usually at least one kid in every school who looks a lot like a moose and is nicknamed
The moose. :P
De nite forms 1 · 2023-08-22
Inde nite and de nite singular
All Swedish words are divided into two groups: en-words (or utrum) and ett-words (or neutrum).
Unfortunately, you cannot know to which group a certain word belongs but there are some tips to
have a greater chance of guessing right.
Most words are en-words

Most words designating a person are en-words ¹
Have a look at the ending, many endings take the same article (e.g. –a² , –ing and –het are
always en-words)
¹ One common exception is ett barn a child

² The only exceptions are ett öga, ett öra and ett hjärta.
Forms
The inde nite singular always takes an article. en-words take en and ett-words take ett
To form the de nite form you simply add -en to the en-words and -et to the ett-words.
Examples
Examples
Inde nite De nite
en bok a book boken the book
Liebe Deutschsprachige & Lieve Nederlandstalige A special warning to you: in the vast majority of
the cases, the ending -en is not a plural ending, as is German and Dutch! "Studenten" means the
student. The plural of "student" is in fact "studenter).
Special cases
Swedish does not like to have two vowels next to each other, so if a word ends in a vowel, we drop
the -e- in the ending.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
en soppa a soup soppan the soup
ett kaffe a coffee kaffet the coffee
Sometimes, we do keep the -e- in the ending, but we drop the -e- in the preceding syllable instead.
This happens to ett-words ending in –el, –en, and –er.
Examples
Inde nite De nite
ett vatten a water vattnet the water
socker a sugar sockret the sugar
But why, oh, why do you do this to me?

Because “vattenet”, “sockeret” would be too blurry and sound way too Danish!
Plurals 2 · 2023-08-22
Plurals
Swedish plurals have a reputation for being irregular and hard to learn. This is, in fact, not true.
While there are certainly many irregular plural forms in Swedish, there is also a lot of predictability,
and a large amount of words are entirely predictable if you know the rules!
Below are the 5 normal Swedish plural forms - both inde nite and de nite.
Singular Plural inde nite Plural de nite
en kvinna kvinnor kvinnorna
en hund hundar hundarna
en sak saker sakerna

Singular Plural inde nite Plural de nite
ett hus hus husen
ett yrke yrken yrkena
How to predict the plural
En-words
-a → -or
en kvinna → kvinnor
en gata → gator
-e → -ar
en pojke → pojkar
Words in -are have no special plural form.

en läkare → läkare
-ing → -ingar
en tidning → tidningar
Words with stress on the nal syllable always take -er.

en elefant → elefanter
en station → stationer
en idé → idéer
Words ending in -el, --er and -en usually take -ar, losing their e in the process.
en fågel → fåglar
en vinter → vintrar
One-syllable words can take either -ar or -er, usually the former.
en hund → hundar
en färg → färger
Ett-words
If they end in a consonant, they have no plural ending.

ett hus → hus
ett barn → barn
If they end in a vowel, they take -n.

ett yrke → yrken
ett meddelande → meddelanden
Irregular plurals
There are several irregular plural forms, usually these include changing the main vowel.
en man → män
en mus → möss
en hand → händer
en bok → böcker
en bok → böcker
The ending -en
It's important to remember that the ending -en can be one of three things:
1. the de nite singular of an en-word
2. the de nite plural of an ett-word ending in a consonant
3. the inde nite plural of an ett-word ending in a vowel
Beware of this common trap for students of Swedish!
1. armen the arm

2. husen the houses
3. äpplen apples
Possessives 4 · 2023-08-22
My, my, my – possessive pronouns
Swedes like order. Therefore we have different possessive pronouns depending on the person (e.g.
“we”) and the following word (which, as you know very well by now, is either an en-word or an ett-
word - or plural). However, we thought there would be way too many pronouns if each person had
three possessive pronouns, so we made an exception for the third person singular and plural,
which only have one each.
Subject En-words Ett-words Plural
Jag min mitt mina
Du din ditt dina
Han hans hans hans
Hon hennes hennes hennes
Det dess dess dess
Den dess dess dess
Vi vår vårt våra
Ni er ert era
De deras deras deras
Who is kissing whose husband???
Imagine Maria is going for a walk with her husband Erik. On their way, they stumble across Annika
and her husband Sven. Annika then suddenly kisses her husband. Which husband is she actually
kissing? Her own husband Sven – or Maria’s husband Erik?! This is a crucial question for Swedes,
so therefore we use something called re exive possessive pronouns (only in the third person)
which says that “it’s the subject’s”.
Example
Annika kysser sin man Annika Puh, we can rest reassured, no con ict (Swedes are very afraid of con icts) because sin tells
kisses her husband us “it’s the subject’s” (i.e Annika’s) husband.
Annika kysser hennes man Annika Oh, oh – we have a problem – this means that Annika is kissing not her own husband but
kisses her husband “her” (i.e Maria’s) husband (i.e Erik)!
This re exive possessive pronoun also has three forms – and I daresay you may guess what they
look like (and why)! They replace “hans”, “hennes” “dess” and “deras” if the subject is the “owner”.
Sin en-words
Sitt ett-words
Sina plural
Object Pronouns 2 · 2023-08-22
Object Pronouns
You know how in English, we say "I saw him" and not "I saw he"? The word he is what we call a
subject pronoun, meaning that it can serve as the subject (main actor/theme) of a sentence. The
word him is what we call an object pronoun, meaning that it can serve as the object/recipient of a
sentence. That's why we say "I saw him" instead of "I saw he" — him is the recipient of the action of
seeing.
In Swedish, subject pronouns have counterparts in object form, just like how he becomes him in
certain positions in English. Here is the list:
Subject Pronoun Object Pronoun
jag I mig me
du you (singular) dig you (singular)
hon she henne her
han he honom him
den it (for en-words) den it
det it (for ett-words) det it
vi we oss us
ni you (plural) er you (plural)
de they dem them
The main thing to watch out for with these object pronouns is pronunciation. The words mig and
dig are pronounced irregularly, as if they were spelled mej and dej (i.e. they both rhyme with nej,
which you learned in a previous lesson). Similarly, the word dem (them) is pronounced like dom,
identical to the pronunciation of the corresponding subject pronoun de (they). Both are pronounced
just like dom in speech, but they are differentiated by spelling in writing. Interestingly, you might
encounter these spelling pronunciations (mej, dej, and dom) in informal writing as you continue to
learn Swedish. Pretty fun, huh?
Vocabulary
Swedish English
visar show(s)
mig me
dig you (singular)
honom him
henne her
den it (for en-words)
det it (for ett-word)
oss us
er you (plural)
dem them
Verbs: Present 2 · 2022-03-18
Present Tense
Verbs are words that describe actions, such as to run or to eat. Verbs come in many different forms
and we're about to learn about the Swedish present tense, used to describe what is happening
right now, i.e. in the present time.
In English, a distinction is made between he runs and he is running. In Swedish, no such difference
exists, both would be correctly translated with han springer.
The Swedish present tense is very simple and easy to learn and is formed in three different ways.
With very few exceptions, it always ends with the letter -r. Let's have a look:
-ar
Present Tense English
hoppar jump(s), is/are jumping
betalar pay(s), is/are paying
simmar swim(s), is/are swimming
These are the -ar-verbs. They are 100% regular. Not that this matters right now, but it will later.
-er
sover sleep(s), is/are sleeping
säljer sell(s), is/are selling
sjunger sing(s), is/are singing
In this group we nd the regular -er-verbs, but also many of the irregular, so called "strong" verbs.
This doesn't matter either at this stage, but again, it will later on!
-r
bor live(s), is/are living
går go(es), is/are going
ger give(s), is/are giving
In this group as well we nd a mix. There are regular -r-verbs, as well as strong verbs. All of them
are short, though, consisting of only one syllable.
Also, great news! We do not conjugate verbs based on who is performing the action. Ever! Not for
the present tense, not for any tense! Not for any verb! Ever! We promise! 100% guaranteed!
Swedish English
jag springer I run
du springer you run
han/hon springer he/she runs
vi springer we run
ni springer you run
de springer they run
Clothing 3 · 2023-08-22
Wearing clothes
The most common way of saying that someone wears clothes in Swedish is har på sig
This is a re exive particle verb. This means that the stress is always on på, which is a particle here,
not a preposition, and the re exive pronoun changes with person. So the whole verb looks like this
in the present:
jag har på mig

du har på dig
han/hon har på sig
vi har på oss
ni har på er
de har på sig
Present 1 1 · 2023-08-22
Present Tense
Verbs are words that describe actions, such as to run or to eat. Verbs come in many different forms
and we're about to learn about the Swedish present tense, used to describe what is happening
In English, a distinction is made between he runs and he is running. In Swedish, no such difference
exists, both would be correctly translated with han springer.
The Swedish present tense is very simple and easy to learn and is formed in three different ways.
With very few exceptions, it always ends with the letter -r. Let's have a look:
-ar
hoppar jump(s), is/are jumping
betalar pay(s), is/are paying
simmar swim(s), is/are swimming
These are the -ar-verbs. They are 100% regular. Not that this matters right now, but it will later.
-er
sover sleep(s), is/are sleeping
säljer sell(s), is/are selling
sjunger sing(s), is/are singing
In this group we nd the regular -er-verbs, but also many of the irregular, so called "strong" verbs.
-r
bor live(s), is/are living
går go(es), is/are going
ger give(s), is/are giving
In this group as well we nd a mix. There are regular -r-verbs, as well as strong verbs. All of them
are short, though, consisting of only one syllable.
Also, great news! We do not conjugate verbs based on who is performing the action. Ever! Not for
the present tense, not for any tense! Not for any verb! Ever! We promise! 100% guaranteed!
Swedish English
jag springer I run
du springer you run
han/hon springer he/she runs
vi springer we run
ni springer you run

Swedish English
Questions 4 · 2023-08-22
Asking questions.
The main function of any language is the exchange of information. Because of this, being able to
ask questions is an essential part of learning any language!
Luckily, asking questions in Swedish does not differ much from asking questions in English at all!
First, we have a selection of question words, just like in English.
Swedish English
vad what
var where (location)
vart where (direction)
hur how
varför why
vem who
vems whose
när when
vilken/vilket/vilka which
vilka who (only for plurals)
Most of the time, we use these just like we would in English.
Swedish English
Vad gör du? What are you doing?
Var är du? Where are you?
Vems hund är det? Whose dog is it?
Note that the Swedish equivalents of which are conjugated just like the adjectives.
Form Swedish English
En-words Vilken bil? Which car?
Ett-words Vilket hus? Which house?
Plural Vilka hundar? Which dogs?
Also you might have noticed Swedish contains two words for where. What for? It's quite simple
really, one is for location, where you are, and one is for direction, where you are heading.
Var är du? (Where are you?)

Var är du? (Where are you?)
Vart går du? (Where are you going?)
Don't worry if you mix these up sometimes, a lot of native speakers do it all the time!
Inversion
Inversion is when you change the word order in certain situations. Let's take a look at English:
You are running.

Are you running?
Notice how we completely changed the meaning of the sentence just by switching the positions of
you and are. Amazing!
And even more amazing: Swedish uses a system very similar to this:
Du springer. (You are running.)

Springer du? (Are you running?)
Just like above, we made a question just by switching the positions of du and springer.
One thing to note is that when using modal verbs (auxiliary verbs) you only invert the modal verb:
Han kan springa. (He can run.)

Kan han springa?. (Can he run?)
Again, very similar to English. Note however that unlike English, Swedish does not use to do as an
auxiliary verb.
Do you run? (Springer du?)

Do you like me? (Gillar du mig?)
Enough reading, it's time for some practice! Good luck and enjoy the simplicity that is Swedish
questions!
Conjunctions 2 · 2022-03-18
Conjunctions
A conjunction is a small word used to link sentences together. English examples are and, but,
because, and that.
Some conjunctions, such as och, eller and men are normal conjunctions and merely join two
sentences together:
Jag ser dig och du ser mig. I see you and you see me.
Jag vill äta glass men det vill inte du. I want to eat ice cream but you don't.
But there are also so called subordinate conjunctions, such as att, eftersom and innan. They create
a subordinate clause, which means that they introduce something that is dependent on the rest of
the total sentence.
Jag vet att du är här. I know that you are here.

Jag vet att du är här. I know that you are here.
Jag äter maten eftersom den är god. I eat the food because it is good.
Now, this is all ne and dandy, but there is something to these subordinate conjunctions that is
important to know! Just like in English, they can be moved around in and be put both before and
after the rest of the sentence. When they are moved to the front, the verb of the other, main part of
the sentence must immediately follow them!
Att du är här vet jag . That you are here, I know.

Eftersom den är god äter jag maten. Because it is good, I eat the food.
NB: The conjunction därför att can never start a sentence, in such cases we use eftersom instead.
Prepositions 3 · 2023-08-22
Prepositions
Prepositions are words that describe spatial or temporal relations. In other words, words such as:
on, under, to, and from.
Prepositions in Swedish are used very similarly to their English counterparts.
Many times they will be literal translations of each other:
-Äpplet är på bordet. (The apple is on the table.)
-Barnet är under bordet. (The child is under the table.)
But sometimes the translations don't match at all:
-Jag är på stan. (literally: I am on the city)
This means that while prepositions many times are very similar in the two languages you are going
to have to learn them the hard way: through practice and experience.
But there's no need to be discouraged by this! Remember, a lot of them are similar to English and
there are not very many prepositions in either Swedish or English. Just make sure to keep at it and
you will be speaking great Swedish in no time!
Good luck!
Family 2 · 2022-03-18
See this discussion: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5667610
Occupations 2 · 2022-03-18
Occupations – without articles
Generally when you speak about professions in Swedish, you don't use an article. So when you say
in English I am a doctor, in Swedish you should say Jag är läkare., without the article.
The article can be used with professions in some cases, but beware, it may change the meaning.
Compare:
Han är clown = He works as a clown. (it is his job)

Han är en clown = He is like a clown. (he behaves like a clown)
In English, if you say He is a clown, you could mean either one of those two things.
If there are any adjectives involved however, the article is used:

Hon är en bra läkare = She is a good doctor.
Adjectives 1 2 · 2022-03-18
Adjectives
In English, adjectives never change their form. In Swedish however, they change all the time—in
fact, they have to! Just like German, Spanish or French, adjectives in Swedish have to agree with
the noun they modify.
This means, that Swedish adjectives have different forms depending on whether the noun is
de nite or inde nite, whether it’s singular or plural, and whether it’s an en or an ett word.
Inde nite forms
When an adjective is used with an inde nite noun, such as en sk or ett hus, it changes according
to the form of the noun it modi es.
For singular en-words, the suf x is -Ø (i.e. nothing at all), meaning the adjective is identical to the
basic form:
en stor sk, en gul bil, en snäll hund.
For singular ett-words, the suf x -t is added to the basic form:

ett stort hus, ett gult bord, ett snällt meddelande.
For plural words, the ending is always -a, regardless of the gender of the word:
stora skar/hus, gula bilar/bord, snälla hundar/meddelanden.
Singular en Singular ett Plural en/ett
-Ø -t -a
stor stort stora
gul gult gula
snäll snällt snälla
De nite forms
If the noun is de nite, the adjective takes the ending -a in all cases, no matter gender or number.
What’s important to note, however, is that whenever a de nite noun is used together with an
adjective, an article is placed in front of the adjective. This article is den for singular en-words, det
for singular ett-words, and de for plural words (note that de is pronounced as ‘dom’).
en stor sk → den stora sken

ett gult bord → det gula bordet
snälla hundar → de snälla hundarna
This article is mandatory—the only time it isn’t used is in proper names and epithets: Svarta Havet
‘the Black Sea’, Röda Torget ‘the Red Square’, Vita Huset ‘the White House’.
The de nite form of the adjective is also used with possessives, even though the noun itself is not
de nite:
min sk → min stora sk

ditt bord → ditt gula bord
Eriks hundar → Eriks snälla hundar
In addition to the de nite -a form, there is also a de nite form ending in -e. This form is used in the
singular when the noun being referred to is male (and would be referred to as han as opposed to
den):
den store mannen, den nye ministern, den kloke pappan.
It is common in epithets referring to men:
Lille Prinsen ‘the Little Prince’, Alexander den Store ‘Alexander the Great’.
It should be noted that this masculine form is optional in the written language, and usually absent
in colloquial Swedish, the exception being in names and titles such as those mentioned above.
(den) -a (det) -a (de) -a
(den) stora (det) stora (de) stora
(den) gula (det) gula (de) gula
(den) snälla (det) snälla (de) snälla
Alternative patterns
There are a number of adjectives not conforming to the pattern described above. Some of these are
irregular, but most of them can be grouped together in the patterns shown below.
Singular en Singular ett Plural/De nite
egen, öppen eget, öppet egna, öppna
fri, ny fritt, nytt fria, nya
röd, glad rött, glatt röda, glada
hård, stängd hårt, stängt hårda, stängda
skalad, älskad skalat, älskat skalade, älskade
trött, rätt trött, rätt trötta, rätta
tyst, exakt tyst, exakt tysta, exakta
sann, tunn sant, tunt sanna, tunna
dum, långsam (short vowel) dumt, långsamt dumma, långsamma
enkel, vacker enkelt, vackert enkla, vackra

Irregular adjectives
Some adjectives simply do not change at all, just like in English. These generally end in -s, -e or -a:
en bra lm, ett bra hus, bra personer

den bra lmen, det bra huset, de bra personerna
en främmande lm, ett främmande hus, främmande personer

den främmande lmen, det främmande huset, de främmande personerna
A couple of adjectives have irregular forms:
en liten pojke, ett litet hus, små katter

den lille/lilla pojken, det lilla huset, de små katterna
en gammal man, ett gammalt hus, gamla katter

den gamle/gamla mannen, det gamla huset, de gamla katterna
Family 2 1 · 2023-08-22
See this discussion: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5667610
Work 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Occupations – without articles
Generally when you speak about professions in Swedish, you don't use an article. So when you say
The article can be used with professions in some cases, but beware, it may change the meaning.
Compare:
Han är clown = He works as a clown. (it is his job)

Han är en clown = He is like a clown. (he behaves like a clown)
In English, if you say He is a clown, you could mean either one of those two things.
If there are any adjectives involved however, the article is used:

Hon är en bra läkare = She is a good doctor.
Adverbs 1 2 · 2022-03-18
Adverbs
Adverbs are small words modifying verbs, adjectives or other adverbs! English adverbs often end in
-ly (such as happily), but many simply have no particular ending (such as very).
In Swedish, the common adverbial ending, like English -ly, is -t. These adverbs are identical to ett-
word adjectives.
vacker → vackert beautifully

glad → glatt happily
snäll → snällt kindly
Some adjectives ending in -ig take an adverbial ending in -en or -tvis.
verklig → verkligen really

naturlig → naturligtvis naturally
And, of course, many adverbs simply have no particular ending: e.g. ofta, kanske, alltid.
Placement of adverbs
Unlike English, adverbs are always placed after the verb in sentences that start with the subject.
This is because of the V2 rule – the verb must always come second.
Jag springer ofta. I often run.

Du äter hemma. You eat at home.
Like English, adverbs are placed before adjectives and other adverbs.
Huset är mycket blått. The house is very blue.

Jag är lyckligt gift. I am happily married.
Han är aldrig hemma. He is never at home.
Adject. 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Adjectives
In English, adjectives never change their form. In Swedish however, they change all the time—in
fact, they have to! Just like German, Spanish or French, adjectives in Swedish have to agree with
the noun they modify.
This means, that Swedish adjectives have different forms depending on whether the noun is
de nite or inde nite, whether it’s singular or plural, and whether it’s an en or an ett word.
Inde nite forms
When an adjective is used with an inde nite noun, such as en sk or ett hus, it changes according
to the form of the noun it modi es.
For singular en-words, the suf x is -Ø (i.e. nothing at all), meaning the adjective is identical to the
basic form:
en stor sk, en gul bil, en snäll hund.
For singular ett-words, the suf x -t is added to the basic form:

ett stort hus, ett gult bord, ett snällt meddelande.
For plural words, the ending is always -a, regardless of the gender of the word:
stora skar/hus, gula bilar/bord, snälla hundar/meddelanden.
-Ø -t -a
stor stort stora
gul gult gula
snäll snällt snälla
De nite forms
If the noun is de nite, the adjective takes the ending -a in all cases, no matter gender or number.
What’s important to note, however, is that whenever a de nite noun is used together with an
for singular ett-words, and de for plural words (note that de is pronounced as ‘dom’).
en stor sk → den stora sken

ett gult bord → det gula bordet
snälla hundar → de snälla hundarna
This article is mandatory—the only time it isn’t used is in proper names and epithets: Svarta Havet
‘the Black Sea’, Röda Torget ‘the Red Square’, Vita Huset ‘the White House’.
The de nite form of the adjective is also used with possessives, even though the noun itself is not
de nite:
min sk → min stora sk

ditt bord → ditt gula bord
Eriks hundar → Eriks snälla hundar
In addition to the de nite -a form, there is also a de nite form ending in -e. This form is used in the
singular when the noun being referred to is male (and would be referred to as han as opposed to
den):
den store mannen, den nye ministern, den kloke pappan.
It is common in epithets referring to men:
Lille Prinsen ‘the Little Prince’, Alexander den Store ‘Alexander the Great’.
It should be noted that this masculine form is optional in the written language, and usually absent
in colloquial Swedish, the exception being in names and titles such as those mentioned above.
(den) -a (det) -a (de) -a
(den) stora (det) stora (de) stora
(den) gula (det) gula (de) gula
(den) snälla (det) snälla (de) snälla
Alternative patterns
There are a number of adjectives not conforming to the pattern described above. Some of these are
irregular, but most of them can be grouped together in the patterns shown below.
egen, öppen eget, öppet egna, öppna
fri, ny fritt, nytt fria, nya
röd, glad rött, glatt röda, glada
hård, stängd hårt, stängt hårda, stängda
skalad, älskad skalat, älskat skalade, älskade
trött, rätt trött, rätt trötta, rätta
tyst, exakt tyst, exakt tysta, exakta
sann, tunn sant, tunt sanna, tunna
dum, långsam (short vowel) dumt, långsamt dumma, långsamma
Irregular adjectives
Some adjectives simply do not change at all, just like in English. These generally end in -s, -e or -a:
en bra lm, ett bra hus, bra personer

den bra lmen, det bra huset, de bra personerna
en främmande lm, ett främmande hus, främmande personer

den främmande lmen, det främmande huset, de främmande personerna
A couple of adjectives have irregular forms:
en liten pojke, ett litet hus, små katter

den lille/lilla pojken, det lilla huset, de små katterna
en gammal man, ett gammalt hus, gamla katter

den gamle/gamla mannen, det gamla huset, de gamla katterna
Verbs: Present 3 2 · 2022-03-18
Lesson 7: Particle verbs
Particle verbs are very characteristic for the Swedish language. You have some in English too, but
in Swedish there are many more and they are more frequently used. An English example would be
turn off, like in Turn off the radio!, which would be Stäng av radion! in Swedish, also with a particle
verb.
In particle verbs, the particle is always stressed. The presence of the particle changes the meaning
of the verb, so that the verb with the particle can mean something quite different from what the
verb means on its own, just like Turn off the radio! means something very different from Turn the
radio!
So, while dyker on its own means 'dives', dyker upp means 'shows up', 'appears'. While håller on its
own means just holds, håller med means 'agrees'.
In negated phrases, inte comes between the verb and the particle: Don't turn off the radio! will be
Stäng inte av radion!
Lesson 8: Deponent verbs
Deponent verbs are verbs that have the same form as passive verbs (ending with an -s) but are not
passive. All the verbs taught in Lesson 8 of this skill are deponent verbs. You've already learned
one before this lesson: nns, the verb used in the construction Det nns = There is/are.
Morphologically, deponent verbs work the same as other verbs, except that they have the ending -s
in every form. Compare: Jag känner dig ('I know you') – Det känns bra ('It feels good').
This is all you really need to know about them, but if you want to know more, you can read here.
Lesson 9: Re exive verbs
Some verbs are re exive, which means they need to have a re exive pronoun as an object. To take
the verb skyndar sig 'hurry' as an example, it will be like this:
Jag skyndar mig 'I am hurrying'
Du skyndar dig 'You are hurrying'
Han/hon/hen/den/det skyndar sig 'He/she/it is hurrying'
Vi skyndar oss 'We are hurrying'
Ni skyndar er 'You are hurrying'
De skyndar sig 'They are hurrying'
Some verbs can be either re exive or not re exive, but take a normal object instead when they're
not re exive. For instance, the Swedish verb lär – either you learn 'yourself', or you teach someone
else:
Jag lär mig svenska 'I am learning Swedish'
Du lär dig svenska 'You are learning Swedish'
etc, or:
Jag lär dig svenska 'I am teaching you Swedish'
Du lär mig svenska 'You are teaching me Swedish' etc.
Lesson 10: Re exive particle verbs
Verbs can be both particle verbs and re exive at the same time. In that case, what is said above
about both those things apply to them. Some examples are
tar med sig literally 'takes with oneself' means brings in the sense someone of taking
something with them
har med sig literally 'has with oneself', means brings in the sense of someone having
something with them
tar av sig literally 'takes off oneself', used for taking off clothes
delar med sig literally 'parts with oneself', means shares – Hon delar med sig av sin mat =
'She shares her food'.
The particle can also come last, as in bryr sig om (literally: 'worries oneself about')- 'cares': Bryr du
dig om mig? - 'Do you care about me?'
Adverbs 2 2 · 2023-08-22
Adverbs
Adverbs are small words modifying verbs, adjectives or other adverbs! English adverbs often end in
-ly (such as happily), but many simply have no particular ending (such as very).
word adjectives.
vacker → vackert beautifully

glad → glatt happily
snäll → snällt kindly
Some adjectives ending in -ig take an adverbial ending in -en or -tvis.
verklig → verkligen really

naturlig → naturligtvis naturally
And, of course, many adverbs simply have no particular ending: e.g. ofta, kanske, alltid.
Placement of adverbs
Unlike English, adverbs are always placed after the verb in sentences that start with the subject.
This is because of the V2 rule – the verb must always come second.
Jag springer ofta. I often run.

Du äter hemma. You eat at home.
Like English, adverbs are placed before adjectives and other adverbs.
Huset är mycket blått. The house is very blue.

Jag är lyckligt gift. I am happily married.
Han är aldrig hemma. He is never at home.
Verbs: Past 2 · 2022-03-18
Past Tense
While it's great to be able to express what is happening right now, a lot of times we will want to
talk about what happened earlier. This is were the past tense comes into play.
As with the present tense, there is no difference between I drew and I was drawing. Both are Jag
ritade.
Let's look at how we do this in Swedish.
ar-verbs
Present tense Past Tense English
pratar pratade talked, was/were talking
simmar simmade swam, was/were swimming

öppnar öppnade opened, was/were opening
If the present form is -ar, the past form is -ade. This is 100% regular. No exceptions. Remember that
both forms have an a in them.
er-verbs
häller hällde poured, was/were pouring
ringer ringde phoned, was/were phoning
läser läste read, was/were reading
köper köpte bought, was/were buying
hör hörde heard, was/were hearing
Ok, this group might look a bit crazy, but it really isn't. The above are all regular er-verbs. If the
verb is regular and its present ends in -er, then the past tense is -de.
Unless, the core of the verb ends in either of p, t, k, or s. In this case it takes -te, because we nd
this easier to pronounce.
If the core ends in r, the regular er-verbs have no present ending, but it still gets its -de in the past
tense. Unfortunately, if you see hör you can't see that it is an er-verb, but if you see hörde you
immediately know it is a regular er-verb and that it's present form must be hör (only regular er-
verbs have a past tense in -de).
r-verbs
tror trodde believed, was/were believing
bor bodde lived, was/were living
klär klädde dressed, was/were dressing
Finally among the regular verbs, we have the short regular r-verbs. Here we simply add -dde, and
we're done with them.
Irregular verbs
ser såg saw, was/were seeing
är var was/were, was/were being
kommer kom came, was/were coming
springer sprang ran, was/were running
dricker drack drank, was/were drinking
skriver skrev wrote, was/were writing

Last of all, irregular verbs. Your favorite, I know! There are a couple of patterns here, but nothing
that would ever t in a description like this, I'm afraid.
Worth noting, however, is that:
Since English and Swedish are related, many irregular verbs are the same: drack-drank, såg-
saw, kom-came. This is a great help trying to remembering them.
Just like in English, strong verbs don't have a particular ending, instead they usually change
their core vowel. This is where you can go look for patterns, just like in English.
Verbs: In nitive 1 2 · 2022-03-18
In nitive
Many times, the in nitive form is referred to as the base form. This is not without reason. When
memorizing verbs this is the one most frequently used and most conjugation stem from this form.
But what do we use it for?
The in nitive form is used when using a modal verb. These are verbs such as want, will, must. This
is actually very similar to how we use the in nitive form in English.
I want to drive a car.

I have to go to school.
In Swedish it is almost exactly the same.
Jag vill köra en bil. (I want to drive a car)

Jag måste gå till skolan. (I must go to school)
The difference here is that we don't use any equivalent to to in Swedish, except for in some cases.
These are the most common ones.
Jag gillar att köra bil. (I like driving [a car])

Jag hatar att städa. (I hate cleaning)
Here, the Swedish word att acts like the English word to.
Note that we do not need to add att if we have an object directly followed by a verb in in nitive
form.
-Låt alla blommor blomma. (Let all owers bloom) -Vi såg honom springa. (We saw him run)*
There isn't that much to learn as an English speaker when it comes to Swedish in nitive. Learning
when to use att and when not to is the key to mastering it, and that will (as usual) come with
practice.
Common exceptions (Advanced)
Yes, there are exceptions, we're sorry...

Modal verbs do not require the use of att. These include words such as kunna, måste and vilja. For
more information regarding modal verbs, refer to the lesson Verbs: Modal.
There are also some ordinary verbs that do not require att. These are börja, sluta, besluta, lära, lära
sig.
Adjectives 2 2 · 2022-03-18
Comparative and Superlative
By now we know some adjectives. We know how to say something is pretty or someting is ugly. But
how do we express that is not just pretty, it's the prettiest or that those shoes are uglier than those
shoes?
We call these forms comparative and superlative.
Comparative form is used when you compare one thing to another.
Sweden is better than Denmark.

My dad is stronger than your dad!
And superlative is used when some is of the highest degree possible of something.
She is the nicest person I've met.

These meatballs are the best I've had!
So how do we create these words in Swedish? Let's take a look at the regular ones rst.
Positive Comparative Superlative unde ned Superlative de ned
varm varmare varmast varmaste
billig billigare billigast billigaste
viktig viktigare viktigast viktigaste
For some adjectives, we prefer to compare them with mer and mest rather than using endings .This
typically happens with adjectives ending in -isk and participles. However in many cases, both work.
And now to the bad news. A lot of adjectives are irregular, especially the most common ones. You
are going to have to learn these the hard way, through practice and experience. But don't lose hope
yet, many of these are so common that you will learn the forms really fast!
Verbs: Present Perfect 2 · 2022-03-18
Present Perfect
Present perfect is used to express a past event that has present consequences. That's a very vague
description, let's look at examples instead. What if we want to say I have eaten or He has written a
book, how do you say that in Swedish? That is when we need to use present perfect and that is also
what we are going to learn in this lesson.
What we have to do to express present perfect in Swedish, is to create a form of the verb, that we
can use as an adjective. Then we combine this with the present form of ha, which is har.
Du har pratat (You have talked)

De har hört (They have heard)
Hon har klätt sig (She has gotten dressed)
Jag har ätit (I have eaten)
This probably looks complicated, and to be perfectly honest, it is. There are four different basic
ways to construct present perfect in Swedish, and they look like this:
In nitive Present Perfect English Translation
prata har pratat talk
höra har hört hear
klä har klätt dress, get dressed
äta har ätit eat
The form we use for the main verb is supine and when we combine this with the auxiliary verb har,
we get present perfect, the equivalent of the English past participle.
This is one of those places where Swedish differs more than usual from English so this might need
some extra practice. One thing to note is that this form is very common in Swedish and you will
have to get used to it not only to understand what people say, but so that you can speak in a more
Swedish way.
All the dif culties aside, good luck with your lesson in Swedish present perfect!
Verbs: Modal 2 · 2022-03-18
Modal verbs
Modal verbs are verbs that indicate what we in linguistics call modality. Modality is what allows us
to attach things such as belief, attitude, and obligation to statements. This means that words such
as must, may, want, are all modal verbs.
This probably sounds very abstract at the moment, let's look at how modal verbs can completely
change a sentence:
I go to school.
Here we use have as a modal verb.
I eat.
I want to eat.
Here, the modal word is want.
You can already see how important modal verbs are. But how do we use them in Swedish? You just
add the modal verb, followed by the main verb in in nitive form.
Jag går till skolan. (I go to school.)
Jag måste gå till skolan. (I must go to school.)
(If you need a little refresher on the in nitive form, take a quick look at the lesson in in nitive
form.)
Notice how we change går from present tense to the in nitive gå. If we use other tenses, we
conjugate the modal verb, not the main verb.
Jag såg honom. (I saw him.)

Jag kunde se honom. (I could see him)
Here, we change såg from past tense to the in nitive form, se.
Glossary
Finally, here is some of the verbs we will be learning in this lesson:
Swedish English
kan can
måste must
får may, be allowed to
borde should
få get, receive
ska will, shall
Good luck!
Verbs: Past Perfect 2 · 2022-03-18
Past perfect
Do you remember how we learned a couple of lessons back how to create Swedish present perfect?
If you do, then this is going to be a real breeze!
In the present perfect lesson, we learned how we could form sentences such as:
Jag har ätit = I have eaten

Du har hört = You have heard
We're now going to create very similar sentences, but they are going to take place in the past!
Jag hade ätit = I had eaten

Du hade hört = You had heard
We still use the supine form to create the past perfect, but with the past tense form hade instead of
the present tense ha.
Let's take a look at the same table on how to use the supine as we did in the present perfect
lesson, but update it for the past perfect instead:
In nitive Past perfect English translation
prata hade pratat talk
höra hade hört hear
klä hade klätt dress, get dressed
äta hade ätit eat
All in all, the Swedish past perfect works much the same way as it does in English:
Jag blev bjuden på middag men jag hade redan ätit.

I was invited to dinner but I had already eaten.
Knowing how to use the past perfect is extremely useful for those times when you have to describe
what happened in the past, such as what you did last weekend.
Oh, and one last thing. As you know by now, the very common words sade and lade are pronounced
just sa and la in Swedish. But this is not the case with hade - it's actually pronounced as though it
were written hadde.
Good luck!
Pronouns relative 2 · 2022-03-18
Relative pronouns
I have a car. It is red. I also have a bike. It is blue.
The above sentences are all correct English, but if you read it out loud, it sounds very clunky. We
can use what we call relative pronouns to make it feel more uent.
I have a car that is red and a bike that is blue.
This looks and sounds a lot better! Of course, we can do the exact same thing in Swedish.
Swedish English
vars whose
där where
som who, that, which
vad what
vilket which
The most important thing to notice here is that you can not use vem orvar as relative pronouns in
Swedish. vem and var are just question words. Here are some examples to make things a bit easier.
Vars
Min vän vars far är död. (My friend whose father is dead.)
Där
I landet där vi bor nns det mycket snö. (In the land where we live there's a lot of snow.)
Som
Bilen som de har är ny. (The car that they have is new.)
Vad
Vet du vad jag tänker på? (Do you know what I'm thinking of?)
Vilket
Han ck ett A i matematik, vilket är bra. (He got an A in mathematics, which is good.)
Determiners 3 · 2023-08-22
Detta? Det här? What's this?
In Swedish, there are two sets of words, both meaning this/these.
First, there is den här, det här, de här. (singular en, singular ett, plural)
Second, there is denna, detta, dessa. (same thing here)
The difference in usage is a question of dialect and of formality.
denna/detta/dessa are generally considered more formal. They are used together with an
inde nite noun, and this formation is usually found mostly in the written language.
den här/det här/de här are generally considered slightly less formal. They are used with a
de nite noun, and are common both in the written language and in the everyday language of
Central and Northern Sweden, as well as Finland.
denna/detta/dessa are also used in the spoken language of Western and Southern Sweden. In
this case they're usually followed by a de nite noun, but this formation is never written in the
standard language.
Summary of the standard forms
denna/detta/dessa den här/det här/de här
denna bok den här boken
detta hus det här huset
dessa böcker de här böckerna
dessa hus de här husen
Någon, något, and några? Who are they?

These words have a few meanings depending on the context. Most commonly, they will mean
some, a few or any when describing something else. They have to agree in gender or number with
what they describe, thus it's någon bok (any/some book), något hus (any/some house) and några
stenar (some/any/a few stones).
Furthermore, when used on their own as pronouns,
någon means someone or anyone.
något means something or anything.
några means some (plural of someone/something) or any (plural of anyone/anything).
It might seem strange that both some and any can translate here, but context will tell.
You might come across the word någonting in Swedish. It means just the same as något, but is a
little more formal.
All, alla, allt!
Lastly, there are the words all, alla and allt. They are used to indicate all of something. By now,
you've probably guessed it right, and indeed these also have to agree in gender or number with the
noun, giving us:
All mjölk/mjölken "all (the) milk", en-word
Allt smör/smöret "all (the) butter", ett-word
Alla bilar/bilarna "all (the) cars", plural
Just like någon/något/några, they can also be used on their own as pronouns, in which case:
alla means everyone.
allt means everything.
And just like with någonting, there is the word allting, which means the same as allt, but is a bit
more formal.
You'll learn more about the forms of these words and a few more in these exercises. Good luck!
Continuous Forms 3 · 2022-03-18
Continuous Forms
Thus far, we have learned that the Swedish present tense covers both the English simple present
(e.g. 'I eat') and the English present continuous ('I am eating'). While this is correct, we are going to
nuance this a little bit.
In Swedish, there are certain constructions emphasizing a continuous action - and which
correspond to the English present continuous (i.e. the -ing form).
håller på is used when the continuity is strong and we want to emphasize this. It is followed by att
plus an in nitive. You will likely also come across it with och plus the present tense, but this is
colloquial and not accepted in the course.
Jag håller på att lära mig svenska. 'I am (in the process of) learning Swedish.'
If the emphasis is less strong, but the markedness is still desired, we can use one of the verbs
sitter/ligger/står together with another present tense verb. This is equal to the English present
continuous, but different in the sense that not only does it mark continuity, it also marks the
position of the subject.
Jag ligger och läser. 'I am (lying and) reading.'

Jag sitter och tittar på teve. 'I am (sitting and) watching television.'
Jag står och lagar mat just nu. 'I am (standing and) cooking right now'
Present 4 1 · 2023-08-22
Lesson 7: Particle verbs
Particle verbs are very characteristic for the Swedish language. You have some in English too, but
in Swedish there are many more and they are more frequently used. An English example would be
turn off, like in Turn off the radio!, which would be Stäng av radion! in Swedish, also with a particle
verb.
In particle verbs, the particle is always stressed. The presence of the particle changes the meaning
of the verb, so that the verb with the particle can mean something quite different from what the
verb means on its own, just like Turn off the radio! means something very different from Turn the
radio!
So, while dyker on its own means 'dives', dyker upp means 'shows up', 'appears'. While håller on its
own means just holds, håller med means 'agrees'.
Stäng inte av radion!
Lesson 8: Deponent verbs
Deponent verbs are verbs that have the same form as passive verbs (ending with an -s) but are not
passive. All the verbs taught in Lesson 8 of this skill are deponent verbs. You've already learned
one before this lesson: nns, the verb used in the construction Det nns = There is/are.
Morphologically, deponent verbs work the same as other verbs, except that they have the ending -s
in every form. Compare: Jag känner dig ('I know you') – Det känns bra ('It feels good').
This is all you really need to know about them, but if you want to know more, you can read here.
Lesson 9: Re exive verbs
Some verbs are re exive, which means they need to have a re exive pronoun as an object. To take
the verb skyndar sig 'hurry' as an example, it will be like this:
Jag skyndar mig 'I am hurrying'
Du skyndar dig 'You are hurrying'
Han/hon/hen/den/det skyndar sig 'He/she/it is hurrying'
Vi skyndar oss 'We are hurrying'
De skyndar sig 'They are hurrying'
Some verbs can be either re exive or not re exive, but take a normal object instead when they're
not re exive. For instance, the Swedish verb lär – either you learn 'yourself', or you teach someone
else:
Jag lär mig svenska 'I am learning Swedish'
Du lär dig svenska 'You are learning Swedish'
etc, or:
Jag lär dig svenska 'I am teaching you Swedish'
Du lär mig svenska 'You are teaching me Swedish' etc.
Lesson 10: Re exive particle verbs
Verbs can be both particle verbs and re exive at the same time. In that case, what is said above
about both those things apply to them. Some examples are
tar med sig literally 'takes with oneself' means brings in the sense someone of taking
something with them
har med sig literally 'has with oneself', means brings in the sense of someone having
something with them
tar av sig literally 'takes off oneself', used for taking off clothes
delar med sig literally 'parts with oneself', means shares – Hon delar med sig av sin mat =
'She shares her food'.
The particle can also come last, as in bryr sig om (literally: 'worries oneself about')- 'cares': Bryr du
dig om mig? - 'Do you care about me?'
Directions & Positions 2 · 2022-03-18
Directions and positions
In Swedish, it is very common that words change depending on whether it describes a position or a
direction. You have already encountered the two words for where in Swedish; Var (position) & Vart
(direction), but now it is time to expand on the subject. The following table summarizes the most
important words:
English Position Direction
Here Här Hit
There Där Dit
Up Uppe Upp
Down Nere Ned/Ner
Home Hemma Hem
Let’s make things a bit clearer with a few examples:

”I am here” - Jag är här
”She is coming here” - Hon kommer hit
“He is there” – Han är där

”I am going there” - Jag går dit
”She is up on the roof” - Hon är uppe på taket

“You climb up on the roof” - Du klättrar upp på taket
“She is down on the rst oor” - Hon är nere på den första våningen
”He jumps down from the roof” - Han hoppar ned/ner från taket
“We are not at home” - Vi är inte hemma

“They are going home” - De åker hem
Framme
Framme is a peculiar word which translates to “there” in English, but it has notions of both position
and direction. It is usually used when talking about the destination, either while going there, or
after having reached it. Sounds confusing? Maybe a few examples can make it clearer.
“Are we there yet?” - Är vi framme snart?

“We are there now” - Vi är framme nu
In the rst example we are talking about the destination while being on our way.
In the second example we have reached the destination after having nished the journey. It
essentially means “We have arrived”.
Förbi
Förbi is used when something is passing by something else, and could be used both for time and
space. I.e:
“The car drives by the school” - Bilen kör förbi skolan

“Our time has passed” - Vår tid är förbi
Suf xes
In many cases where English uses a preposition to describe directions, Swedish would rather add a
suf x to indicate the same meaning. For example:
Uppifrån – From above

Uppåt - (To) up
Uppför - Uphill (or up along)
Past 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Past Tense
While it's great to be able to express what is happening right now, a lot of times we will want to
talk about what happened earlier. This is were the past tense comes into play.
ritade.
Let's look at how we do this in Swedish.
ar-verbs
pratar pratade talked, was/were talking
simmar simmade swam, was/were swimming
öppnar öppnade opened, was/were opening
If the present form is -ar, the past form is -ade. This is 100% regular. No exceptions. Remember that
both forms have an a in them.
er-verbs
häller hällde poured, was/were pouring
ringer ringde phoned, was/were phoning
läser läste read, was/were reading
köper köpte bought, was/were buying
hör hörde heard, was/were hearing
Ok, this group might look a bit crazy, but it really isn't. The above are all regular er-verbs. If the
verb is regular and its present ends in -er, then the past tense is -de.
Unless, the core of the verb ends in either of p, t, k, or s. In this case it takes -te, because we nd
this easier to pronounce.
If the core ends in r, the regular er-verbs have no present ending, but it still gets its -de in the past
tense. Unfortunately, if you see hör you can't see that it is an er-verb, but if you see hörde you
immediately know it is a regular er-verb and that it's present form must be hör (only regular er-
verbs have a past tense in -de).
r-verbs
tror trodde believed, was/were believing
bor bodde lived, was/were living
klär klädde dressed, was/were dressing
Finally among the regular verbs, we have the short regular r-verbs. Here we simply add -dde, and
we're done with them.
Irregular verbs
ser såg saw, was/were seeing
är var was/were, was/were being
kommer kom came, was/were coming
springer sprang ran, was/were running
dricker drack drank, was/were drinking
skriver skrev wrote, was/were writing
Last of all, irregular verbs. Your favorite, I know! There are a couple of patterns here, but nothing
that would ever t in a description like this, I'm afraid.
Worth noting, however, is that:
Since English and Swedish are related, many irregular verbs are the same: drack-drank, såg-
saw, kom-came. This is a great help trying to remembering them.
Just like in English, strong verbs don't have a particular ending, instead they usually change
their core vowel. This is where you can go look for patterns, just like in English.
Medical 2 · 2022-03-18
Speaking about body parts
Speaking about body parts, this is a good place to point out that in English, you always refer to
your body parts with possessive pronouns. In Swedish however, we usually think that it is enough
to use the determinate form of the noun.
Compare:
Jag borstar tänderna - I am brushing my teeth
It is not wrong to say Jag borstar mina tänder in Swedish, but that's not the idiomatic way of saying
it.
Read more about how to speak about body parts here.
Passive Participles 2 · 2022-03-18
The passive participle (or perfekt particip) is normally used to say that something has happened to
an object, and that the action is nished. So it has both a passive meaning and a past tense
meaning.
There are a few patterns for how they are created, e.g.:
1. Verbs ending in -ar get the participle ending in -ad. E.g. irriterar -> irriterad ('irritate',
'irritated')
2. Verbs ending in -er get the ending -d E.g. stänger -> stängd ('close', 'closed'). If the root ends
in a voiceless consonant (s, f, k, p, t), the -d is changed to -t instead.
3. Strong verbs get the ending -en E.g. stjäl -> stulen ('steal', 'stolen')
The passive participle behaves like an adjective: it changes for number and gender.
1. If the common gender form ends in -ad, the neuter form will be -at and the plural -ade. E.g.
överraskad, överraskat, överraskade.
2. If it ends in -d, the neuter will end in -t and the plural in -da: stängd, stängt, stängda
3. If the common gender form ends in -en, the neuter form will be -et, and the plural -na. E.g.
uppäten, uppätet, uppätna
In nitives 2 1 · 2023-08-22
In nitive
Many times, the in nitive form is referred to as the base form. This is not without reason. When
memorizing verbs this is the one most frequently used and most conjugation stem from this form.
But what do we use it for?
The in nitive form is used when using a modal verb. These are verbs such as want, will, must. This
is actually very similar to how we use the in nitive form in English.
I want to drive a car.

In Swedish it is almost exactly the same.
Jag vill köra en bil. (I want to drive a car)

Jag måste gå till skolan. (I must go to school)
The difference here is that we don't use any equivalent to to in Swedish, except for in some cases.
These are the most common ones.
Jag gillar att köra bil. (I like driving [a car])

Jag hatar att städa. (I hate cleaning)
Here, the Swedish word att acts like the English word to.
Note that we do not need to add att if we have an object directly followed by a verb in in nitive
form.
-Låt alla blommor blomma. (Let all owers bloom) -Vi såg honom springa. (We saw him run)*
There isn't that much to learn as an English speaker when it comes to Swedish in nitive. Learning
when to use att and when not to is the key to mastering it, and that will (as usual) come with
practice.
Common exceptions (Advanced)
Yes, there are exceptions, we're sorry...
Modal verbs do not require the use of att. These include words such as kunna, måste and vilja. For
more information regarding modal verbs, refer to the lesson Verbs: Modal.
There are also some ordinary verbs that do not require att. These are börja, sluta, besluta, lära, lära
sig.
Verbs: Future Perfect

Verbs: Future Perfect 2 · 2022-03-18
Future perfect
Future perfect is the tense that describes an action that will be completed at a certain point in the
future. This tense is easy beacuse it works just the same way in Swedish as in English. Just pay
attention to the Swedish word order:
Swedish English
Jag kommer att ha hittat den i morgon. I will have found it tomorrow.
I morgon kommer jag att ha hittat den Tomorrow I will have found it.
When the adverb (i morgon, tomorrow) comes rst in the clause, the word order in Swedish is
inverted, since the verb must be in second place.
Verbs: Conditional 3 · 2022-03-18
What is the conditional?

"The conditional" is just a fancy way to say that we are talking about "would" phrases -- anything
that would happen or could have happened or would have happened.
How do we form the conditional?

We use the word skulle much like we use the word "would" in English. All you have to do is add
skulle before the verb in nitive! Easy peasy!
Example: Jag skulle läsa om hon lyssnade.

I would read if she listened.
You can do the same thing in more complex constructions. "Would have" can be directly translated
to skulle ha, which is followed by the perfect form of the verb (like läst or kommit), just as in
English.
Example: Jag skulle ha läst om hon hade lyssnat. I would have read if she had listened.
Vore
Vore is the conditional form of the verb vara -- to be. It is actually derived from the archaic past
subjunctive mood that once existed in Swedish (and still does in a few set expressions). Although
there are some nuances, for now you can use vore just as you would use skulle + any other verb.
Because vore already includes the conditional aspect, it would be redundant (and grammatically
incorrect) to say skulle vore.
Future preterite 2 · 2022-03-18
Future preterite can be described as the future seen from the past. It is used when speaking about
something you were planning at a point of time in the past, or something you thought was going
to happen. The forms are the same as for the conditional, skulle + in nitive, but the meaning is not
the same.
Example:
Example:
När vi skulle åka upptäckte vi att bilen var stulen .
When we were going to go, we discovered that the car was stolen.
The people in this sentence discovered that their car was stolen at a point in time where their
leaving had not yet happened – they were going to go, the leaving was still in the future for them.
Adject. 4 1 · 2023-08-22
Comparative and Superlative
By now we know some adjectives. We know how to say something is pretty or someting is ugly. But
how do we express that is not just pretty, it's the prettiest or that those shoes are uglier than those
shoes?
We call these forms comparative and superlative.
Comparative form is used when you compare one thing to another.
Sweden is better than Denmark.

My dad is stronger than your dad!
And superlative is used when some is of the highest degree possible of something.
She is the nicest person I've met.

These meatballs are the best I've had!
So how do we create these words in Swedish? Let's take a look at the regular ones rst.
Positive Comparative Superlative unde ned Superlative de ned
varm varmare varmast varmaste
billig billigare billigast billigaste
viktig viktigare viktigast viktigaste
For some adjectives, we prefer to compare them with mer and mest rather than using endings .This
typically happens with adjectives ending in -isk and participles. However in many cases, both work.
And now to the bad news. A lot of adjectives are irregular, especially the most common ones. You
are going to have to learn these the hard way, through practice and experience. But don't lose hope
yet, many of these are so common that you will learn the forms really fast!
Perfect 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Present Perfect
Present perfect is used to express a past event that has present consequences. That's a very vague
description, let's look at examples instead. What if we want to say I have eaten or He has written a
book, how do you say that in Swedish? That is when we need to use present perfect and that is also
what we are going to learn in this lesson.
can use as an adjective. Then we combine this with the present form of ha, which is har.
Du har pratat (You have talked)

De har hört (They have heard)
Hon har klätt sig (She has gotten dressed)
Jag har ätit (I have eaten)
This probably looks complicated, and to be perfectly honest, it is. There are four different basic
ways to construct present perfect in Swedish, and they look like this:
In nitive Present Perfect English Translation
prata har pratat talk
höra har hört hear
klä har klätt dress, get dressed
äta har ätit eat
The form we use for the main verb is supine and when we combine this with the auxiliary verb har,
we get present perfect, the equivalent of the English past participle.
This is one of those places where Swedish differs more than usual from English so this might need
some extra practice. One thing to note is that this form is very common in Swedish and you will
have to get used to it not only to understand what people say, but so that you can speak in a more
Swedish way.
All the dif culties aside, good luck with your lesson in Swedish present perfect!
Imperative 4 · 2023-08-22
The imperative is formed by removing -er from verbs ending in -er in the present tense, and
removing -r from verbs ending in -ar in the present tense.
Examples:
läser -> läs!
äter -> ät!
lyssnar -> lyssna!
betalar -> betala!
Exceptions:
some very short verbs:
går -> gå!
tror -> tro!
ger -> ge!
but
gör -> gör!
Also note: kommer -> kom!
Future 3 · 2023-08-22
Future
First of all, there is good news and bad news. The bad news are there are three different ways to
express future in Swedish. The good news are all of these three ways are really simple!
With the present tense, usually using adverbs
The rst one is basically just present tense with an adverb to describe what time we are talking
about.
Jag går till skolan om en timme (I'm going to school in an hour)

Du yger till Stockholm i morgon (You are ying to Stockholm tomorrow)
Jag ringer dig (I'll call you). No adverb, but it's understood that I'm not doing it right now.
Although the same kind of constructions exist in English they are a bit more common in casual
Swedish.
Ska
In Swedish, ska is the equivalent of the English verb will, as in I will. You might stumble upon the
spelling skall instead of ska. This is often considered very formal or old-fashioned. Unless you're
writing formal texts, just use ska. There is a sort of ’modal’ nuance to ska: whenever you use this
form, somebody wants something to happen (or not happen). You could also say that somebody
controls what is going to happen, or has decided to do something.
Jag ska gå till skolan (I will go to school)

Vi ska köpa ett hus (We will buy a house)
Kommer att
Kommer att is a bit hard to translate directly, but the closest equivalent would be going to. It is
often used when making predictions about what is probably going to happen. In other words, often
about things that you can't control.
Jag tror att det kommer att regna i morgon (I think it is going to rain tomorrow)
Hon kommer nog inte att tycka om presenten. (She is probably not going to like the gift)
If you happen to mix up ska and kommer att it will sound a bit strange to the native speaker but it
will still be grammatically correct. Don't be discouraged by this, you will learn the more subtle
differences between the two in time and with practice.
Good luck!
Past Perfect 1 · 2023-08-22
Past perfect
Do you remember how we learned a couple of lessons back how to create Swedish present perfect?
If you do, then this is going to be a real breeze!
In the present perfect lesson, we learned how we could form sentences such as:
Jag har ätit = I have eaten

Du har hört = You have heard
We're now going to create very similar sentences, but they are going to take place in the past!
Jag hade ätit = I had eaten

Du hade hört = You had heard
We still use the supine form to create the past perfect, but with the past tense form hade instead of
the present tense ha.
Let's take a look at the same table on how to use the supine as we did in the present perfect
In nitive Past perfect English translation
prata hade pratat talk
höra hade hört hear
klä hade klätt dress, get dressed
äta hade ätit eat
All in all, the Swedish past perfect works much the same way as it does in English:
Jag blev bjuden på middag men jag hade redan ätit.

I was invited to dinner but I had already eaten.
Knowing how to use the past perfect is extremely useful for those times when you have to describe
what happened in the past, such as what you did last weekend.
Oh, and one last thing. As you know by now, the very common words sade and lade are pronounced
just sa and la in Swedish. But this is not the case with hade - it's actually pronounced as though it
were written hadde.
Good luck!
Directions 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Directions and positions
In Swedish, it is very common that words change depending on whether it describes a position or a
direction. You have already encountered the two words for where in Swedish; Var (position) & Vart
(direction), but now it is time to expand on the subject. The following table summarizes the most
important words:
Here Här Hit
There Där Dit
Up Uppe Upp
Down Nere Ned/Ner
Home Hemma Hem
Let’s make things a bit clearer with a few examples:

”I am here” - Jag är här
”She is coming here” - Hon kommer hit

”I am going there” - Jag går dit
”She is up on the roof” - Hon är uppe på taket

“You climb up on the roof” - Du klättrar upp på taket
“She is down on the rst oor” - Hon är nere på den första våningen
”He jumps down from the roof” - Han hoppar ned/ner från taket
“We are not at home” - Vi är inte hemma

“They are going home” - De åker hem
Framme
Framme is a peculiar word which translates to “there” in English, but it has notions of both position
and direction. It is usually used when talking about the destination, either while going there, or
after having reached it. Sounds confusing? Maybe a few examples can make it clearer.
“Are we there yet?” - Är vi framme snart?

“We are there now” - Vi är framme nu
In the rst example we are talking about the destination while being on our way.
In the second example we have reached the destination after having nished the journey. It
essentially means “We have arrived”.
Förbi
Förbi is used when something is passing by something else, and could be used both for time and
space. I.e:
“The car drives by the school” - Bilen kör förbi skolan

“Our time has passed” - Vår tid är förbi
Suf xes
In many cases where English uses a preposition to describe directions, Swedish would rather add a
suf x to indicate the same meaning. For example:
Uppifrån – From above

Uppåt - (To) up
Uppför - Uphill (or up along)
Medical 2
Medical 2 1 · 2023-08-22
Speaking about body parts
Speaking about body parts, this is a good place to point out that in English, you always refer to
your body parts with possessive pronouns. In Swedish however, we usually think that it is enough
to use the determinate form of the noun.
Compare:
Jag borstar tänderna - I am brushing my teeth
It is not wrong to say Jag borstar mina tänder in Swedish, but that's not the idiomatic way of saying
it.
Read more about how to speak about body parts here.
Conditional 1 · 2023-08-22
What is the conditional?

"The conditional" is just a fancy way to say that we are talking about "would" phrases -- anything
that would happen or could have happened or would have happened.
How do we form the conditional?

We use the word skulle much like we use the word "would" in English. All you have to do is add
skulle before the verb in nitive! Easy peasy!
Example: Jag skulle läsa om hon lyssnade.

I would read if she listened.
You can do the same thing in more complex constructions. "Would have" can be directly translated
to skulle ha, which is followed by the perfect form of the verb (like läst or kommit), just as in
English.
Example: Jag skulle ha läst om hon hade lyssnat. I would have read if she had listened.
Vore
Vore is the conditional form of the verb vara -- to be. It is actually derived from the archaic past
subjunctive mood that once existed in Swedish (and still does in a few set expressions). Although
there are some nuances, for now you can use vore just as you would use skulle + any other verb.
Because vore already includes the conditional aspect, it would be redundant (and grammatically
incorrect) to say skulle vore.
Passive 4 · 2023-08-22
Passive
There are two kinds of passive in Swedish, the s-passive and the perifrastic passive. Their forms are
easy to learn, the problem is to know when to use the passive.
S-passive
S-passive is formed by adding the ending -s to the verb.

S-passive is formed by adding the ending -s to the verb.
Verbs that end on -ar in the present tense thus take -as instead, while verbs that end on -er in the
present tense end on just -s in the passive present. In the tables below, the passive is shown in
action with the -er verb bygga and the -ar verb kasta.
Bygga
Form Active form Passive form
Future Vi ska bygga ett hus. Huset ska byggas.
We will build a house The house will be built.
Present Vi bygger ett hus. Huset byggs.
We are building a house. The house is being built.
Past Vi byggde huset. Huset byggdes.
We built the house The house was built.
Present perfect Vi har byggt huset. Huset har byggts.
We have built the house. The house has been built.
Kasta
Form Active form Passive form
Future Vi ska kasta en boll. Bollen ska kastas.
We will throw a ball. The ball will be thrown.
Present Vi kastar en boll. Bollen kastas.
We are throwing a ball. The ball is being thrown.
Past Vi kastade bollen. Bollen kastades.
We threw the ball The ball was thrown.
Present perfect Vi har kastat bollen. Bollen har kastats.
We have thrown the ball. The ball has been thrown.
Perifrastic passive
The perifrastic passive is formed with an auxiliary verb, bli (become) or vara (be), plus a perfect
participle. The participle is in ected as an adjective, as usual:
Swedish English
Huset var redan byggt. The house was already built.
Husen var redan byggda. The houses were already built.
Kyrkan var redan byggd. The church was already built.
Agent
If there is an agent in a passive sentence – the agent is the one who performs the action of the
verb – the preposition av is used:
Huset byggdes av tre bröder. ~ The house was built by three brothers.
Celebration 3 · 2023-08-22
Congratulations on nishing the course! We hope that you have enjoyed learning the language so
far, and we wish you the best of luck on the rest of your Swedish-learning journey! Lycka till :)
65 skills with tips and notes
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Svenska Grammatik Duolingo

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Svenska Grammatik Duolingo

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WORDS TIPS FORUM

··········· Table of Contents ···········

Welcome to the Duolingo Swedish course!

He is a man. = Han är en man.

a always open, like in all or father

j like y in English yellow

ä like in hat or pet

We'll talk more about pronunciation as you go.

Three words with irregular pronunciations are taught in this lesson:

är am, is, are (present tense of "to be")

Two genders – but four pronouns!

Female Male En-words Ett-words

hon she han he den it det it

Who? What? Where? 1 · 2022-03-18

You? You guys? You all? Y'all?

In this lesson, we also introduce you to a few more plural pronouns:

ni you (plural = y'all)

ni you (plural = y'all)

ett äpple = an apple

Jag sitter. = I am sitting. →

Jag har bröd. = I have bread. →

De har ett barn. = They have a child. →

Verbs, verbs, verbs

har have, has

sitter sit(s), is/are sitting

ett barn a child

(ett) vatten water

(ett) bröd bread

ett äpple an apple

Common Phrases 1 · 2018-10-25

Country Adjective Nationality Language

Sverige Sweden svensk(t) swedish en svensk a Swede svenska Swedish (language)

England England engelsk(t) English en engelsman an Englishman engelska English (language)

”A glass and glass-the”

When it comes to the de nite form, it gets weird.

en-words take -en and ett-words take -et.

Inde nite singular De nite singular

en sked a spoon skeden the spoon

ett glas a glass glaset the glass

God morgon! Good morning!

God kväll! Good evening!

heter is named, is called

Mannen äter soppa. (The man is eating soup.) →

Hästen läser en bok. (The horse is reading a book.) →

You'll get the hang of it in no time!

Cups, glasses, heaps, piles

Peppers, peppers, peppers

laga (mat) to cook

ett kött a meat

ett glas a glass

ett socker a sugar

ett ägg an egg

ett salt a salt

The de nite suf x

en kvinna (a woman) → kvinnan (the woman)

ett barn (a child) → barnet (the child)

Var är boken? Where is the book?

Var är äpplet? Where is the apple?

Det är en bok. (It is a book.)

Jag köper en bok.

Jag köper en bok varje dag.

Just a few quick pronunciation notes for this lesson!

mannen the man