Swedish Index | Swedish I | Swedish II | Germanic Languages

41. Places

airport	flygplats	embassy	ambassad	port	hamn
bakery	bageri	factory	fabrik	prison	fängelse (n)
bank	bank	farm	bondgård	restaurant	restaurang
bar	bar	fountain	fontän	road/street	gata
barn	lada	garage	garage	school	skola
barracks	kasern	hospital	sjukhus (n)	sidewalk	trottoar
bench	bänk	hotel	hotell	square	torg (n)
bookstore	bokhandel	house	hus (n)	stable	stall
bridge	bro	hut	hydda	stadium	stadion
building	byggnad	inn	värdshus (n)	store	affär
castle	slott (n)	library	bibliotek (n)	suburb	förort
cathedral	katedral	market	marknad	theater	teater
cemetery	kyrkogård	monument	minnesvård	tower	torn (n)
church	kyrka	museum	museum	town	stad
cinema	biograf	palace	palats	town hall	rådhus (n)
consulate	konsulat (n)	path	stig	train station	järnvägsstation
corner	hörn	pharmacy	apotek	university	universitet (n)
courtyard	gård	police station	polisstation	village	by

42. Transportation

43. Adjectives

Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns they describe. In Swedish, adjectives are placed directly before the noun, as in English. There are two types of adjectives: strong and weak. Strong adjectives are used after the indefinite article and the words någon (a, some, any), ingen (no), en annan (another), vilken (what a), and all (all); as well as after the verbs to be and to become (vara and bli). Weak adjectives are used with the definite article, demonstratives, possessive adjectives or a possessive noun.

Strong (Indefinite): The basic rule for strong adjectives is to add -t for neuter nouns and -a for plural nouns. There is no ending for adjectives that modify common nouns.

Weak (Definite): The basic rule for weak adjectives is to add -a for all nouns. Note that the noun has the definite article attached to the end and the words den, det or de preceding the adjective. The adjective liten is completely irregular in the singular and plural. With adjectives follow possessives or demonstratives, the definite article is not attached to the end of the noun.

Some common adjectives cannot be declined and they remain the same in all forms: bra (good), extra (extra), gratis (free).

44. Comparative & Superlative

Forming the comparative and superlative of adjectives in Swedish is very similar to English. Most adjectives add -are to the adjective for the comparative and -ast(e) for the superlative. Some adjectives add nothing to the adjective, but use mer or mest (more or most) before the adjective.

	comparative	superlative
strong adjectives	-are	-ast
weak adjectives	-are	-aste
many syllables	mer	mest

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

good - better - best	god	bättre	bäst
good - better - best (food)	god	godare	godast
bad - worse - worst	dålig	värre	värst
bad - less good - least good	dålig	sämre	sämst
small - smaller - smallest	liten	mindre	minst
many - more - most	många	fler	flest
much - more - most	mycket	mer	mest
old - older - oldest	gammal	äldre	äldst

Note: Godare and godast usually only refer to food. Fler / flest are used with count nouns, while mer / mest are used with non-count nouns.

Comparing two or more adjectives: To express egality (as... as), use så...som. To express superiority (-er or more... than), use -are or mer and än (than.) To express the superlative (-est or the most), use -ast or mest.

45. House & Furniture

46. Clothing

47. Future Tense

One way to form the future tense in Swedish is by using the auxiliary verb ska before an infinitive. This implies intention and the involvement of someone's will or wish. As an alternative, you can use tänker before an infinitive, as long as it is the subject's wish and not someone else's.

Du ska tala svenska. You are going to speak Swedish.
Jag ska resa till Amerika i höst. I'm going to America in the fall.
Vi tänker flyga hem. We're going to fly home.

Another way is to use kommer att before an infinitive. This does not imply intention or will, as it's more of a prediction or assumption about the future.

Du kommer att tycka om min vän. You'll like my friend.
Alla kommer att vara här klockan 8. Everybody will be here at 8 o'clock.

48. Sports

49. Nature

50. Parts of the Body

51. Relative Pronouns

The relative pronoun som can be translated at that, which, whom, or who and it can act as a subject or as a complement. Där (where, in which) and när (when) can also be used as relative pronouns for location and time.

Stan, som ligger där borta, är Skövde. The city that is over there is Skovde.
Flickan, som fyller 17 år, är min syster. The girl who is going to be 17 is my sister.
Restaurangen, som du tycker om, ligger i Gamla Stan. The restaurant which you like is in Gamla Stan.

52. Animals & Insects

53. Adverbs

Adverbs are generally placed after the first verb in independent clauses with straight word order.

David röker ofta pipa. David often smokes a pipe.
Stockholm ligger inte i Amerika. Stockholm is not in a America.
Talar Bo alltid långsamt? Does Bo always speak slowly?

In subordinate clauses, the adverb is placed before the conjugated verb.

Hon tror, att hon alltid har rätt. She thinks that she is always right.
Lars sade, att han inte tycker om att köra bil. Lars said that he doesn't like to drive.

Many adverbs in Swedish have two distinct forms: one to denote location and one to denote movement to or from a place. Location adverbs answer the question var? where? while movement adverbs answer the question vart? where to?

Location adverbs are used with verbs of rest (vara, stå, ligga, sitta, stanna, finnas, bo, trivas) and movement adverbs are used with verbs of motion (gå, komma, fara, resa, åka, flytta, spring, köra, flyga).

Malin är här. Malin is here.
Malin kommer hit. Malin is coming here.

Mamma stannar hemma. Mother is staying home.
Mamma går hem. Mother is going home.

54. Present & Past Participles

The present participle in Swedish acts as an adjective. Present participles cannot be used to form the progressive tenses as in English, i.e. He is reading is translated as Han läser. Nor can present participles be used as gerunds (-ing form used as nouns in English). In this case, the infinitive is used: Do you like reading? Tycker du om att läsa?

The Swedish present participle is formed by adding -ande to most verbs, and -ende to verbs whose infinitives do not end in -a. Although the present participle acts as an adjective, it is not declined like other adjectives. It remains the same at all times.

en strålande dag
två strålande dagar
den strålande dagen
de strålande dagarna

The past participle in Swedish also acts as an adjective, either in the predicate of the sentence or as a modifying adjective before a noun. Unlike the present participle, the past participle does decline and agree with the noun in gender and number. Remember that the supine form is used in the perfect tenses in Swedish, whereas English uses the past participle. The past participle is used in the passive voice in Swedish, however.

Indefinite Forms: The en word forms vary according to the conjugation pattern of the verb. The ett word forms are similar to the regular adjective endings, and add -t or -tt. The plural forms add either -a or -e ( for -ar verbs). Predicate adjectives are always declined in the definite forms.

Definite Forms: The singular and plural forms of the definite past participles are the same as the plural indefinite forms: add -a to most verbs, and -e to -ar verbs.

55. Passive Voice

Bli + past participle
The passive voice is formed similar to the English passive, but with a different verb: conjugation of bli + past participle (which must agree with the subject). It is possible to use vara (be) instead of bli (become) in these sentences, but this describes a state or condition. Using bli describes an action or a transition from one state to another. Notice that av is the preposition used to mean by when expressing the agent.

Skjortan blir tvättad. The shirt was washed.
Kläderna blir tvättade. The dresses were washed.
Huset blev sålt av Johan. The house was sold by John.

Verb + s
Another way to form the passive voice is the -s form. The ending -s can be added to the infinitive, past tense or supine forms. In the present tense, -s is added to the infinitive of the -ar and long vowel verbs and to the stem of the -er and irregular verbs. Also, if the stem already ends in -s, an -e is inserted before the -s. This verb + s form commonly follows modal verbs.

Nyheterna läses varje timme. The news is read every hour.
Bordet köptes av min moster. The table was bought by my aunt.
Räkningen hade redan betalats. The bill had already been paid.
Barn ska ses men inte höras. The child will be seen but not heard.

56. Office & School Supplies

57. Materials & Tools

58. Traveling & Airport

59. Conversational Phrases

60. Swedish Provinces

Sweden is divided into 3 lands: Norrland, Svealand and Gotaland; which are divided into 25 smaller landskap. These are not political divisions, but they are used in everyday language (such as in weather reports).

Norrland comprises the 9: Gästrikland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Hälsingland, Jämtland, Härjedalen, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Lappland

Svealand consists of 6: the capital region Mälardalen in the east, Roslagen to the north-east, the former mining District Bergslagen in the center, and Dalarna and Värmland in the west.

Götaland has 10:
* Blekinge
* Bohuslän
* Dalsland
* Gotland
* Halland
* Skåne
* Småland
* Västergötland
* Öland
* Östergötland

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