Gender (Uter, neuter and reale)

The Swedish language depends a lot on gender of a word.
It controls what form an adjective should be in and what plural/article ending to use.

Uter is a gender which was formed by merging together masculine and feminime.
It's used for most living things, such as people, nationalities, occupations, animals and plants, but never trees themselves. However, the names of the trees are uter.
Thus, man and kvinna (woman) are both uter.
What makes uter words so special is that one/a/an means "en" whenever it comes before a word in uter form. For example, "en tandläkare" means "a dentist".
Because of that, uter words are in general speech called "en-ord" (ord=word(s)).
Also, when an uter word is definite, it ends with N, for example "flickan" means "the girl".
Most uter words end with A and all foreign vocabulary is in uter form with exceptions of words from Latin. It's the most common gender so if you only use "en" you'd be right about 75% of the time.

Neuter words are mostly non-living objects.
Most words that are in neuter form comes from Latin, such as system.
What makes neuter words so special is that one/a/an means "ett" whenever it comes before a word in neuter form. For example, "ett hus" means "a house".
Because of that, neuter words are in general speech called "ett-ord".
Also, when a neuter word is definite, it ends with T, for example "bordet" means "the table".
This is the uncommon gender so don't use this gender until you're sure what you're talking about.

Reale is a combination of uter and "non-living".
About 75% of uter words are in reale, such as "sjö" which means "lake".
This particular thing, you didn't need to know, but I included it anyway because it's by some considered a gender of its own.

That wraps up uter, neuter and reale.
Next time we're gonna talk about masculine and feminime.

Pronouns

In the first grammar lesson, we'll be talking about pronouns.

The Swedish pronouns are:
Jag - I
Du - Thou/You
Han - He
Hon - She
Den/det - It
Vi - We
Ni - Ye/You
De - They

These pronouns are always first in a sentence.

The reflexive pronouns are:
Mig - Me
Dig - Thee/You
Honom - Him
Henne - Her
Den/det - It
Oss - Us
Er - You
Dem - Them

These are used when a person is affected by the verb rather than the person affecting, for example Ät mig is Eat me.
It's also put in sentences even though there already is a pronoun that the reflexive pronoun is based of, for example Nu ska jag lära mig kinesiska is Now I'm gonna learn [me/myself] Chinese.

The possessive pronouns are:
Min/mitt/mina - My
Din/ditt/dina - Thy/Your
Hans - His
Hennes - Her
Dennes - Its
Vår(an)/Vår(a)t/Våra - Our
Er(an)/Er(a)t/Era - Your
Deras - Their

The first word is in uter gender. The second word is in neuter gender. The third word is in plural, regardless of the gender.
The reason that an and a was in paranthesis was that they're usually dropped in everyday speech, hence vårt/ert is pronounced with a retroflex T.
The possessive pronoun is always before the noun, but at times it may appear after the noun, but that's only in poems. When that occurs, the noun is in definite form.
Min häst is My horse. Hästen min is The horse of mine or My horse.
We'll talk more about gender and how they affect the language in the next lesson.

Also, there are no words meaning mine/of mine, your/of yours, etc.
The possessive pronouns are used instead.
That wraps up the pronouns. See you in the next lesson.

The Sje sound part

This is what makes the Swedish language so unique.

It's pronounced [ɧ] and it's formally called voiceless palatal-velar fricative.

What more makes it unique is the many ways of spelling it.

A guy called Garlén estimates that there are 22 spellings of the Sje sound, but some claim that there are over 50 spellings of it.

The SJ spelling is the most common one and it's used in native Swedish words.

It can occur before both front and back vowels, which makes it the hardest spelling of the word.

SJ is normally put before back vowels, but with few exceptions it's put behind front vowels.

Example, sjal (scarf).

The second spelling is SK, but this is an easy one because it only carries the Sje sound before front vowels. When before a back vowel, it's pronounced [sk].

Example, skön (nice).

STJ is only used in five words. Those are Stjäla (steal), stjälk (stalk), stjälpa (overturn), stärna (star) and stjärt (butt).

SKJ is only used in five words. Those are Skjorta (shirt), skjuta (shoot, push), skjuts (ride, hike, vehicle), skjul (shed) and skjuvning/skjuva (shear, push).

STG is usually pronounced [stj] but some people pronounce it as the Sje sound. Only three words use this spelling for the sound. Those are Västgöte (person from Västergötland), östgöte (person from Östergötland) and gästgiveri (inn). The only time STG is pronounced as the Sje sound is in the words Västgöta- and Östgöta- which marks that something has to do with Västergötland or Östergötland.

SCH is usually used for the Tje sound, but mostly at the end of a word and in the beginning of words when before a consonant. When in the beginning or middle of a word it's pronounced like the Sje sound. The SCH spelling is used for words of German origin.

Example, schablon (template) and schlager (Eurovision/Melodifestivalen hit).

CH has two different sounds depending on the origin of the word. The Tje sound is used for words of English origin and the Sje sound is used for words of French origin.

This spelling usually occurs in the beginning of a word.

G may both represent [g], [j] and the Sje sound but it always have the latter pronounciation when put after a front vowel. It's the Sje sound 50% of the time when at the beginning of a word and 99% of the time when in the middle of a word (with few exceptions). G can also correspond to the Tje sound, but this only occurs at the end of a word, with an E after it. This only occurs in words of French origin. In names and words of Scandinavian origin it's pronounced [gə].

-TION, -SION and -SSION are always pronounced with the Sje sound. It's used with words of Latin origin and some of English origin. The -TION spelling has a [t] before the Sje sound.

The easiest one is XJ which is just a Sje sound with a K before it. What more makes it easy is that it only occurs in the place-name Växjö.

And that wraps up the pronounciation bit. Now we will start on the grammar.

Single and double consonants

In the earlier lessons you might've encountered expressions such as single consonants and double consonants.
The functions of those are that they prolong the vowels so that you can distinguish between certain words.

I decided to count retroflex consonants as single consonants, despite being spelled with two consonants, because they're still counted as one single sound which makes vowels long.

This is a good example of how you can use single and double consonants to distinguish between two words:
Mål [moːl] goal and moll [mɔl] minor (music)

The combinations available are:
Bb, dd, ff, gg, ck, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss and tt.
NOTE: Double K is always spelled ck, never kk.

In some words, single M may make vowels short, but we will talk more about that in the lessons about spelling.

There are also several spellings of the voiceless palatal-velar fricative [ɧ], but we'll discuss them in the lessons about the sje sound.

Non-alphabetical sounds

There are quite some sounds which doesn't directly correspond to a letter in the alphabet.
By that I mean the sound the letter has when spelling a word.

There are many ways to write the sje sound [ɧ] which is unique for the Swedish language.
So many that I have to discuss that in a future lesson alone. But now let us continue.

The [j] sound can be written in several ways without a specific system.
What you should note is that j, gj, dj, hj, y, lj is always pronounced the same, no matter what.
G however is pronounced [j] after E, I, Y, Ä and Ö and [g] after A, O, U and Å.
Y only occurs as the [j] sound in foreign loan-words, such as yacht and yoghurt.
Ge [jeː] give (infinitive), godis [guːdɪs] candy

The so called tje sound is pronounced [ɕ]. It can be written in 4 different ways. One of the spellings is also a way to write the sje sound but we'll discuss that in the sje sound lesson.
That's why I'm only talking about three ways.
Kj and tj are always pronounced [ɕ] no matter what letter is coming after it.
K is pronounced [ɕ] after E, I, Y, Ä, Ö but [k] after A, O, U and Å.
Kela [ɕela] cuddle (infinitive), kaka [kʰɑːka] cookie, cake

The retroflex consonants are sounds consisting of R and D, L, S, T, N merging into one sound.
The retroflex sounds of the Swedish language are [ɖ], [ɭ], [ʂ], [ʈ] and [ɳ].
The retroflex flap [ɽ] only occurs in northern dialects and the dialect(s) in Värmland.
The retroflex consonants aren't common in other languages.
Nord [nuːɖ] north
Härlig [hæːɭɪ] nice
Färsk [fæʂːk] fresh
Karta [kʰɑːʈa] map
Örn [œːɳ] eagle

That's all for now. Next time we will talk about the sje sound.

The consonant sounds pt. 2 (Trills, laterals and nasals)

The Swedish language has got one trill, R. It's rolled in Standard Swedish but in Southern Sweden it's pronounced like [ʀ] or [ʁ].
For example, rov [ruːv] loot.


The Swedish language has got one lateral, L. It's together with R the only letter which changes among the dialects. In Norrland and Värmland it's a retroflex flap, [ɽ].
For example, loppa ['lɔpa] flea.


The Swedish language has got 3 nasal consonants, two of them correspond to their own letters, M and N. The third one [ŋ] is written NG. G is pronounced like that when before an N, though with an N sound after it.
M is pronounced [ɱ] when preceding F, V and M.
Examples, sång [sɔŋ] song; regna [rɛŋna] rain (infinitive); kamfer [kaɱfɛr] camphor.

The combination [nj], which also can be rendered as the palatal nasal [ɲ], can be spelled in three ways.
The first way is Ñ, and it only occurs in señor in texts that has to do with Spain.
The second way is NJ, which is the most common way. It mostly occurs in names but also in a few words.
The third way is GN, whenever the syllable is stressed, such as in signerad [sɪɲeːrad] signed (adjective).
When the syllable isn't stressed or the word is mono-syllable, it's pronounced [ŋn].

The consonant sounds pt. 1 (Plosives and fricatives)

The Swedish language has got 6 plosives. They're written with the letters B, D, G, K, P and T.
K and G occasionally has other pronounciations apart from their pronounciations in the alphabet (The letters are called [koː] and [geː]). More about that in an another lesson.
P, B, T and D, however, are always pronounced the same.

[k] This sound can be written either like K, Q (Rare) and (G).
G is pronounced [k] before the letter T. Example, sagt [sakt] said (perfect tense).

K, P and T are aspirated, except of when they're after an S.
For example, ko [kʰuː] cow, sko [skuː] shoe.


The Swedish language has got 7 fricatives. 5 of them have their own letters - F, H, J, S, V - and two of them are written with letter combinations (More about that in the lesson(s) about non-alphabetical sounds).
There is nothing special with the 5 letters; they're always pronounced the same. The two sounds with doesn't have their own letters are [ɕ] and [ɧ], the second one being unique for the Swedish language and thus being hard to pronounce for foreigners.

That's all for this lesson. Next time it's time for trills, laterals and nasals.