Introduction to Swedish/Alphabet

The Swedish alphabet contains 29 letters:

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The Swedish alphabet.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö

The last three letters, Å, Ä, and Ö, are regarded as distinct letters, separate from A and O. Whereas in English you might use the term "A - Z", in Swedish it would be "A - Ö". Unlike in English, Y is always a vowel, except in the case of some loanwords. W has not been included in the Swedish alphabet for a long time, but since 2006 the Swedish Academy considers W as a separate letter. However, this is not fully accepted in dictionaries and other instances yet.

The Vowels

Vowels are divided into hard and soft vowels. When reading new Swedish words you should pay attention to whether the vowels are short or long. Each vowel has both a long and a short phonetic variant. The basic rule is that a vowel is short if it is followed by more than one consonant.

Long Vowels

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
iː	listen  sil, /siːl/, "sieve"
eː	listen  hel, /heːl/, "whole"
ɛː	listen  häl, /hɛːl/, "heel"
ɑː	listen  mat, /mɑːt/, "food"
oː	listen  mål, /moːl/, "goal"
uː	listen  bot, /buːt/, "penance"
ʉ̟ː	listen  ful, /fʉ̟ːl/, "ugly"
yː	listen  syl, /syːl/, "awl"
øː	listen  nöt, /nøːt/, "nut"

Short Vowels

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
ɪ	listen  sill, /sɪl/, "herring"
ɛ	listen  häll, /hɛl/, "flat rock"
a	listen  matt, /mat/, "listless; matte"
ɔ	listen  moll, /mɔl/, "minor" (music)
ʊ	listen  bott, /bʊt/, "lived" (perfect tense)
ɵ	listen  full, /fɵl/, "full"
ʏ	listen  syll, /sʏl/, "sleeper" (railroad)
œ	listen  nött, /nœt/, "worn"

The Consonants

Most consonants can be doubled. The letter k can be doubled with c (like in rock n' roll.) The consonant c sounds like s when not combined with k (like the first c in bicycle). The letters z, q, and w are very uncommon but are used in family and company names. The letter m is not doubled at end of words with two exceptions, lamm and damm.

Examples of words with doubled consonants:

flabb, ledd, klaff, ragg, back, pall, damm, spinn, kupp, pirr, triss, titt

Initial g and k
If the first letter in a word is g and if the next letter is a soft vowel then the g is pronounced as a j .
If the first letter in a word is k and if the next letter is a soft vowel then the k is pronounced as an sh .

Plosives

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
p	listen  pol, /puːl/, "pole" (of axis)
b	listen  bok, /buːk/, "book"
t	listen  tok, /tuːk/, "fool"
d	listen  dop, /duːp/, "christening"
k	listen  kon, /kuːn/, "cone"
ɡ	listen  god, /ɡuːd/, "good"

Fricative

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
f	listen  fot, /fuːt/, "foot"
v	listen  våt, /voːt/, "wet"
s	listen  sot, /suːt/, "soot"
ɧ	listen  sjok, /ɧuːk/, "chunk"
ɕ	listen  kjol, /ɕuːl/, "skirt"
j	listen  jord, /juːrd/, "soil, earth"
h	listen  hot, /huːt/, "threat"

/r/ and Retroflex Assimilations

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
r	listen  rov, /ruːv/, "prey; loot"

Laterals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
l	listen  lov, /luːv/, "tack (sailing maneuver)"

Nasals

Phoneme (IPA)	Pronunciation sample, phonemic transcription and translation
m	listen  mod, /muːd/, "courage"
n	listen  nod, /nuːd/, "node"
ŋ	listen  lång, /lɔŋ/, "long"

Stress

Normally the stress is put on the first vowel. The tonality is more important in Swedish.

Tonality

Both nita and niten have the stress on the vowel i. However, the tonality differs. This is often a situational difference that varies from one word to the next. For more information on tone you can try the Wikipedia article on tone.

Typing Special Characters

The light house "Långe Jan" at the south end of Öland island.

On a PC:

Alt+0229 = å
Alt+0197 = Å
Alt+0228 = ä
Alt+0196 = Ä
Alt+0246 = ö
Alt+0214 = Ö

On a Mac:

Option+a = å
Option+A = Å
Option+u to get ¨ then type a = ä
Option+u to get ¨ then type A = Ä
Option+u to get ¨ then type o = ö
Option+u to get ¨ then type O = Ö

If you don't manage to get these characters, the standard way is to substitute å with aa, ä with ae, and ö with oe.

More Information on Pronunciation

For more detailed information on Swedish pronunciations read the Wikipedia article on Swedish phonology.

Exercise

Pronounce the following Swedish words.

1. skal, sno, tur, kår, ven, mil, syl, när, bör

2. stall, stopp, lupp, sådd, ett, stins, skyll, ärr, börs

3. vara, bliva, heta, kallas, äta, dricka, festa, leka

4. bilen, vägen, äpplet, trädet, smaken, tiken

5. kal, kotte, kul, kål, gam, gott, gurka, gås

6. ge, gick, gylf, Gävle, gök, kedja, kil, kyl, käk, kök