Swedish Language Guide

Official language in
Sweden, Finland
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

In Sweden, the Language Act states that Swedish is the main language of Sweden ("huvudspråk"). As the main language, Swedish is the common language of society, which everyone resident in Sweden is to have access to and which is to be usable in all areas of society. The Act also states that the language of courts, administrative authorities, and other bodies performing public functions is Swedish, and that Swedish is Sweden's official language in international contexts. The Act names Finnish, Yiddish, Meänkieli, Romani Chib, and Sami as the national minority languages.

In Finland, the Constitution states that the national languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. It also provides that the right of everyone to use his or her own language, either Finnish or Swedish, before courts of law and other authorities, and to receive official documents in that language, is to be guaranteed by an Act.

Svenska Akademiens grammatik (SAG) gives central Swedish standard pronunciation unless it says otherwise. It notes that in southern Sweden a back r-sound is used instead of the front r, while Finland Swedish uses the front r.

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Script & pronunciation

Swedish is written in the Latin alphabet. The Institute for Language and Folklore (Isof) states that the Swedish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, which has only five vowels, whereas Swedish, like the other Scandinavian languages, has had nine vowels. According to Isof, the letters å, ä, and ö exist in written Swedish because the å, ä, and ö sounds exist in the language. Svenska Akademiens grammatik (SAG) gives the spellings of the Swedish vowels as a, o, u, å, e, i, y, ä, and ö. Isof also states that in the Swedish alphabet å comes before ä and ö, whereas in the Danish and Norwegian alphabets it is placed last.

In this app, the card for "påtår" ("A refill of coffee") contains å, the card for "läsk" ("Soft drink") contains ä, and the card for "Köpenhamn" ("Copenhagen (Swedish spelling)") contains ö. This app's Swedish cards have no separate romanization line; the text field is the ordinary Swedish spelling.

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Grammar essentials

Swedish main clauses put the finite verb in second position. Svenska Akademiens grammatik (SAG) sets out the pattern in a positional schema: a declarative main clause has a first position, the satsbas (also called the fundament), followed by the finite verb, then the subject and any adverbials, as in its example "I dag tänker jag nog hämta mamma." This app's card "Av religiösa skäl äter jag inte nötkött." ("For religious reasons I don't eat beef.") has a fronted phrase first, the finite verb "äter" second, and the subject "jag" after it; the card's own note calls this V2 word order with a fronted phrase. Another of this app's cards describes Swedish as basically SVO but a V2 language, in which the finite verb always takes second position in main clauses.

In SAG's schema, a yes-no question has an empty first position and begins with the finite verb, as in "Ville han inte åka till Örebro?" This app's card "Säljer ni SL-biljetter?" ("Do you sell SL travel tickets?") follows the same pattern, and its note says that the finite verb moves to the front in questions.

SAG describes the order in which the adverbial precedes the finite verb as typical for subordinate clauses, and the order in which the finite verb precedes the adverbial as typical for main clauses. Its schema for subordinate clauses places the subject and any adverbials before the finite verb, as in "eftersom hon tyvärr hade sålt gården." SAG contrasts the two orders with the same words: "Där vill jag inte bo" in a main clause and "där jag inte vill bo" in a subordinate clause.

The negation "inte" is a sentence adverbial. SAG states that negating sentence adverbials are normally placed last among the adverbials in the middle field of the clause, and gives "Hon har tyvärr inte skrivit till Harald." This app's card "Vi tar tyvärr inte kontanter." ("Sorry, we do not take cash.") shows the same order, with "tyvärr" before "inte," and its note says that in a main clause "inte" follows the finite verb. This app's card "Jag talar inte svenska" ("I can't speak Swedish") likewise puts "inte" after the finite verb "talar."

SAG states that every Swedish noun has a grammatical gender, common gender or neuter. The gender determines the form of the definite suffix in the singular (båt-en but hus-et) and the form of agreeing adjectives and pronouns (en gul båt but ett gult hus). SAG counts about three quarters of nouns as common gender and the rest as neuter, a calculation made on newspaper prose. A definite noun is marked by a suffix on the noun, as in SAG's examples "pojken," "huset," and "stenarna." This app's card "Var är stranden?" ("Where is the beach?") has a note explaining "stranden" as "strand" plus the definite suffix "-en." The card "Var ligger konstmuseet / galleriet?" ("Where is the art museum / gallery?") has a note describing "museet" as "the museum" with the "-et" suffix, and the card "Vilka är öppettiderna?" ("What are the opening hours?") has a note describing "-na" as the definite plural suffix. This app's cards for body parts state the gender: the card "näsa" ("Nose") says "Common gender: en näsa, definite näsan," and the card "huvud" ("Head") says "Neuter: ett huvud, definite huvudet."

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Politeness & etiquette

After the Second World War, the system of address in Swedish changed. Svenska Akademiens grammatik (SAG) describes an older system with five alternatives: "du" for one person and "ni" for several, a capitalised polite "Ni" for one or several, a title with or without a name, a kinship term, and a name. SAG states that "du" became the dominant word of address regardless of the speakers' status and social relations, while address by title became increasingly unusual and the other alternatives were greatly reduced. SAG adds that, despite long efforts to make "Ni" a neutral word of distance like "De" in Danish or "Sie" in German, in most places "Ni" never quite lost its condescending ring.

Catrin Norrby's article, based on focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires in Gothenburg and Vasa, reports that in speech "du" is the clearly predominant form in most contexts, especially in Sweden. It describes "Ni" as very uncommon in Swedish in Sweden today, and reports that "Ni" is mainly used by young shop assistants, waiters, and other service staff to address customers, preferably older ones. According to the article, many people in Gothenburg regard this new use of "Ni" as unnecessary, and the majority seem not to want to be addressed with "Ni." This app's card for "du" says that in Sweden "du" is used with strangers and is not impolite.

SAG lists "ni" as the plural of "du." This app's cards "Säljer ni SL-biljetter?" and "Har ni några lediga rum?" ("Are there any vacancies?") use "ni" to address a shop or a hotel; the second card's note says that "Ni" is the polite plural "you" used in service contexts. The card "Har ni en audioguide?" ("Do you have an audio guide?") notes that "ni" is also used as a polite singular in modern Swedish and is more formal than "du."

SAG also lists conventional ways of speaking that avoid an address word, which existed and still exist, such as "Vad får det lov att vara?," which SAG describes as a question from a shop assistant to a customer, and "Hur var namnet?," which SAG describes as a question about the addressee's name.

Norrby reports that in Finland Swedish the form "Ni" did not carry the negative load it had in Sweden. According to the article, "du" also became common in Finland Swedish, but Finland Swedish social habits are generally more indirect and formal than those in Sweden, so that titles and "Ni" are more common, a point the article attributes to Fremer. In the Vasa focus group, "Ni" was agreed to be a polite form of address whatever the generation. The Vasa results show "Ni" more often than the Gothenburg results, and the article states that it is rather the rule than the exception in Vasa to address older, unknown people (as in professional contacts) with "Ni" and to use "Ni" in writing to unknown people. The Vasa group considered the use of "Ni" and of other markers of formality such as titles to be considerably more widespread in Helsinki than in Ostrobothnia and Vasa.

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