Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
after the definite article, irrespective of number,
det stora huset
, the big house,
de fina
böckerna
, the fine books; and also after a possessive, once again irrespective of number,
min stora trädgård
, my big garden, or
stadens vackra gator
, the town's beautiful streets.
Verbs
are something of a mixed blessing. There is only one form for all persons,
singular and plural, in all tenses, which means there are no irksome endings to
remember:
jag är
- I am,
du är
- you (singular) are,
ni är
- you (plural) are,
han/vi är
- we are,
de är
- they are. All verbs take the auxiliary
att ha
(to have) in the perfect and
pluperfect tenses (eg
jag har gått
- I have gone,
jag har talat
- I have spoken;
jag hade
gått
- I had gone,
jag hade talat
- I had spoken). The price for this simplicity is
unfortunately four different conjugations which are distinguished by the way they form
their past tense. Verbs are always found as the second idea in any Swedish sentence, as
in German, which can often lead to the inversion of verb and subject. However, in
Swedish, there are no “verb scarers” which are responsible for the suicidal pile-up of
verbs which often occurs at the end of German sentences.
Pronunciation
Rest assured - you're never going to sound Swedish, for not only can
pronunciation
be difficult, but the sing-song
melody
of the language is beyond the reach of most
outsiders. Swedish uses two quite different
tones
on words of two or more syllables
- one rises throughout the entire word, while the other falls in the middle before
peaking at the end of the word. It's this second down-then-up accent which gives
Swedish its distinctive melody. Unfortunately, identical words can have two different
meanings depending on which tone is used. For example,
fem ton
with a rising accent
throughout each word means “five tons”, whereas
femton
where the accent dips during
the
fem-
and rises throughout the -
ton
means “fifteen”. Equally,
komma
with a rising
tone throughout means “comma”, whereas
komma
with a falling tone followed by a
rising tone is the verb “to come”. In short, try your best, but don't worry if you get it
wrong. Swedes are used to foreigners saying one word but meaning another and will
generally understand what you're trying to say.
Vowels
can be either long (when followed by one consonant or at the end of a word)
or short (when followed by two consonants). Unfamiliar or unusually spelt vowels are
as follows:
ej
as in m
a
te
y
as in
ew
e
å
when short, as in h
o
t; when long, sort of as in r
aw
ä
as in g
e
t
ö
as in f
u
r
Consonants
are pronounced approximately as in English except:
g
before e, i, y, ä or ö as in
y
et; before a, o, u, å as in
g
ate;
sometimes silent
j
,
dj
,
gj
,
lj
as in
y
et
k
before e, i, y, ä or ö approximately as in
sh
ut and similar
to German
ch
in “ich”, otherwise hard
qu
as in
kv
rs
as in
sh
ut (also when one word ends in r and the next be-
gins with s, for example
för stor
, pronounced “fur shtoor”)
s
as in
s
o (never as English z)
sj
,
skj
,
stj
approximately as in
sh
ut (different from soft
k sound and more like a sh-sound made through the
teeth but with rounded lips - this sound takes much
practice; see below)
tj
approximately as in
sh
ut and with same value as a
soft
k
z
as in
s
o (never as in
z
oo)
The soft sound produced by
sj
,
skj
and
stj
is known as the
sj-sound
and is a
peculiarity of Swedish. Unfortunately it appears widely and its pronunciation varies
with dialect and individual speakers. To confuse matters further there are two variants,
a back sj-sound formed by raising the back of the tongue and a front sj-sound formed
by raising the middle or front of the tongue. Gain instant respect by mastering this
