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Swedish is descended fromOld Norse. Compared to its progenitor,Swedish grammar is much less characterized byinflection. Modern Swedish has twogenders and no longerconjugates verbs based on person or number. Its nouns have lost the morphological distinction betweennominative andaccusativecases that denoted grammatical subject and object in Old Norse in favor of marking by word order. Swedish uses some inflection with nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It is generally asubject–verb–object (SVO) language withV2 word order.
Nouns have one of twogrammatical genders:common (utrum) andneuter (neutrum), which determine their definite forms as well as the form of any adjectives and articles used to describe them. Noun gender is largely arbitrary and must be memorized; however, around three quarters of all Swedish nouns are common gender. Living beings are often common nouns, like inenkatt "a cat",enhäst "a horse",enfluga "a fly", etc.
Swedish once had three genders—masculine,feminine and neuter. Though the three-gender system is preserved in many dialects and traces of it still exist in certain expressions, masculine and feminine nouns have today merged into the common gender in the standard language. A remnant of the masculine gender can still be expressed in the singular definite form of adjectives according tonatural gender (male humans), in the same way as personal pronouns,han andhon, are chosen for representing nouns in contemporary Swedish (male/female human beings and optionally animals).
There is a small number of Swedish nouns that can be either common or neuter gender. The database forSvenska Akademiens ordlista 12 contained 324 such nouns.[1]
There are traces of the former four-case system for nouns evidenced in thatpronouns still have subject, object (based on the oldaccusative anddative form) andgenitive forms.[2] Nouns make no distinction between subject and object forms, and the genitive is formed by adding-s to the end of a word. This-s genitive functions more like aclitic than a proper case and is nearly identical to the possessive suffix used in English. Note, however, that inSwedish orthography this genitive-s is appended directly to the word and is not preceded by an apostrophe. This does not cause confusion as it would in English because Swedish does not use an "-s" suffix for plurals.
Swedish nouns are inflected for number and definiteness and can take a genitive suffix. They exhibit the following morpheme order:
| Noun stem | (Plural ending) | (Definite article) | (Genitive-s) |
Nouns form the plural in a variety of ways. It is customary to classify Swedish nouns into fivedeclensions based on their plural indefinite endings:-or,-ar,-(e)r,-n, and no ending.
The definite article in Swedish is mostly expressed by a suffix on the head noun, while the indefinite article is a separate word preceding the noun. This structure of the articles is shared by theScandinavian languages. Articles differ in form depending on the gender and number of the noun.
Theindefinite article, which is only used in the singular, isen for common nouns, andett for neuter nouns, e.g.enflaska ("a bottle"),ettbrev ("a letter"). Thedefinite article in the singular is generally the suffixes-en or-n for common nouns (e.g.flaskan "the bottle"), and-et or-t for neuter nouns (e.g.brevet "the letter"). In most dialects, the final-t of the definite neuter suffix is silent. The definite article in the plural is-na for the first three declensions,-a for the fourth, and-en for the fifth: for exampleflaskorna ("the bottles"),bina ("the bees"),breven ("the letters").
When anadjective ornumeral is used in front of a noun with the definite article, an additional definite article is placed before the adjective(s). This additional definite article isdet for neuter nouns,den for common nouns, andde for plural nouns, e.g.den nya flaskan ("the new bottle"),det nya brevet ("the new letter"),de fem flaskorna ("the five bottles"). A similar structure involving the same kind of circumfixing of the definite article around the wordshär ("here") ordär ('there') is used to mean "this" and "that", e.g.den här flaskan ("this bottle"),det där brevet ("that letter") as a demonstrative article.
The five declension classes may be named-or,-ar,-er,-n, andnull after their respective plural indefinite endings. Each noun has eight forms: singular/plural, definite/indefinite and caseless/genitive. The caseless form is sometimes referred to asnominative, even though it is used for grammatical objects as well as subjects.
The genitive is always formed by appending-s to the caseless form. In the second, third and fifth declensions words may end with /s/ (spelled -⟨s⟩, -⟨x⟩, or -⟨z⟩) in the caseless form. These words take no extra-s in genitive use: the genitive (indefinite) ofhus ("house") ishus. The invisible genitive suffix may however optionally be represented with an apostrophe in writing:hus’.[3] Morpheme boundaries in some forms may be analyzed differently by some scholars.
The Swedish genitive is not considered a case by all scholars today,[who?] as the-s is usually put on the last word of the noun phrase even when that word is not the head noun, much like in English usage (e.g.mannen som står där bortas hatt, "the man standing over there's hat"). This use of-s as aclitic rather than a suffix has traditionally been regarded as ungrammatical, but is today dominant to the point where putting an-s on the head noun is considered old fashioned. TheSwedish Language Council sanctions putting the ending after fixed, non-arbitrary phrases (e.g.Konungen av Danmarks bröstkarameller, "the King of Denmark's cough drops"); but otherwise they recommend to reformulate in order to avoid the construction altogether.[4]
These examples cover all regular Swedish caseless noun forms.
First declension:-or (common gender)
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Second declension:-ar (common gender)
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Third declension:-er,-r (mostly common gender nouns, some neuter nouns)
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The set of words taking only-r as a marker for plural is regarded as a declension of its own by some scholars. However, traditionally these have been regarded as a special version of the third declension.
Fourth declension:-n (neuter) This is when a neuter noun ends in a vowel.
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Fifth declension: unmarked plural (mostly neuter nouns ending in consonants and common gender nouns ending in certain derivational suffixes)
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The Swedish personal-pronoun system is almost identical to that of English. Pronouns inflect for person, for number, and, in the third person singular, for gender. Swedish differs,inter alia, in having a separate third-person reflexive pronounsig ("oneself"/"himself"/"herself"/"itself"/"themselves" – analogous to Latin se and Slavic sę), and distinct 2nd-person singular formsdu ("thou") andni ("you", formal/respectful), and their objective forms, which have all merged toyou in English, while the third-person plurals are becoming merged in Swedish instead (see below the table). Some aspects of personal pronouns are simpler in Swedish: reflexive forms are not used for the first and second persons, althoughsjälv ("self") andegen/eget/egna ("own") may be used for emphasis, and there are no absolute forms for the possessive.
The Swedish personal pronouns are:
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Nominative | Objective | Possessive: com./neut./pl. | Person | Nominative | Objective | Possessive: com./neut./pl. |
| 1st | jag | mig[i] | min,mitt,mina[ii] | 1st | vi | oss | vår,vårt,våra[ii] |
| 2nd (familiar) | du | dig[i] | din,ditt,dina[ii] | 2nd (plural or formal sing.) | ni | er | er,ert,era[ii] Ers (honorific) |
| 3rd masculine | han | honom | hans | 3rd | de[i] | dem[i] | deras |
| 3rd feminine | hon | henne | hennes | ||||
| 3rd gender-neutral[iii] | hen | hen,henom | hens | ||||
| 3rd common | den | dess | |||||
| 3rd neuter | det | ||||||
| 3rd indefinite ("one") | man | en | ens | ||||
| 3rd reflexive | — | sig[i] | sin,sitt,sina[ii] | 3rd reflexive | — | sig[i] | sin,sitt,sina[ii] |
Swedish adjectives are declined according to gender, number, and definiteness of the noun.
In singular indefinite, the form used with nouns of the common gender is the undeclined form, but with nouns of the neuter gender a suffix-t is added. In plural indefinite an-a suffix is added irrespective of gender. This constitutes thestrong adjective inflection, characteristic ofGermanic languages:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Common | enstorbjörn, "a largebear" | stora björnar, "large bears" |
| Neuter | ett stortlodjur, "a largelynx" | stora lodjur, "large lynxes" |
In standard Swedish, adjectives are inflected according to the strong pattern, by gender and number of the noun, in complement function withär, "is/am/are", such as
In some dialects of Swedish, the adjective is uninflected in complement function withär, so becoming
In the definite form, (meaningthe +adjective), there is an-a suffix no matter the case or number of the noun:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Common | den stora björnen, "the large bear" | de stora björnarna, "the large bears" |
| Neuter | det stora lodjuret, "the large lynx" | de stora lodjuren, "the large lynxes" |
This form is also used with possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, our, their, or in Swedishmin/mitt/mina, etc. ), resulting inmingula bil (my yellow car) anddittstora hus (your large house).
The sole exception to this-a suffix occurs when nouns can be replaced with "he" or "him" (in Swedishhan orhonom). In this case, the adjectives take the-e ending.Colloquially, however, the usual-a ending is possible in these cases in someSwedish dialects:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nat. masc., alt. I | den store mannen, "the large man" | de stora männen, "the large men" |
| Nat. masc., alt. II | den stora mannen, "the large man" |
This is called a weak adjective inflection and originates from aProto-Germanic nominal derivation of the adjectives. This was not always the case, cf.Proto-Germanic adjectives
Adjectives with comparative and superlative forms ending in-are and-ast, which is a majority, also, and so by rule, use the-e suffix for all persons on definite superlatives:den billigaste bilen ("the cheapest car"). Another instance of-e for all persons is the plural forms and definite forms of adjectival verb participles ending in-ad:en målad bil ("a painted car") vs.målade bilar ("painted cars") andden målade bilen ("the painted car").
Adjectival adverbs are formed by putting the adjective in the neuter singular form. Adjectives ending in-lig may take either the neuter singular ending or the suffix-en, and occasionally-ligen is added to an adjective not already ending in-lig.
| Common | Neuter | Adverb |
|---|---|---|
| tjock, "thick" | tjockt, "thick" | tjockt, "thickly" |
| snabb, "fast" | snabbt, "fast" | snabbt, "fast" |
| avsiktlig, "intentional" | avsiktligt, "intentional" | avsiktligen, "intentionally" |
| stor, "great, large" | stort, "great, large" | storligen, "greatly" i stort sett, "largely" |
Adverbs of direction in Swedish show a distinction that is often lacking in English: some have different forms depending on whether one is heading that way, or already there. For example:
| Heading that way | Already there | English |
|---|---|---|
| upp | uppe | up |
| ner | nere | down |
| in | inne | in, into |
| ut | ute | out, out of |
| hem | hemma | home |
| bort | borta | away |
| fram | framme | forward |
The cardinal numbers from zero to twelve in Swedish are:
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| noll | en,ett | två | tre | fyra | fem | sex | sju | åtta | nio | tio | elva | tolv |
The number 1 is the same as the indefinite article, and its form (en orett) depends on the gender of the noun that it modifies.
The Swedish numbers from 13 to 19 are:
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| tretton | fjorton | femton | sexton | sjutton | arton (aderton) | nitton |
The formaderton is archaic, and is nowadays only used in poetry and some official documents. It is still common inFinland Swedish.
The numbers for multiples of ten from 20 to 1000 are:
| 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 100 | 1000 |
| tjugo | trettio | fyrtio | femtio | sextio | sjuttio | åttio | nittio | (ett)hundra | (ett)tusen |
In some dialects, numbers are not always pronounced the way they are spelled. With the numbersnio (9),tio (10) andtjugo (20), the-o is often pronounced as-e, e.g.[ˈɕʉ̂ːɡɛ]. In some northern dialects it is pronounced as a-u ([ˈɕʉ̂ːɡʉ]), and in some middle dialects as an-i ([ˈɕʉ̂ːɡɪ]). In spoken language,tjugo usually drops the final syllable when compounded with another digit and is pronounced astju- + the digit, e.g.tjugosju (27) may be pronounced[ɕʉːˈɧʉː]. Words ending in-io (trettio,fyrtio, etc.) are most often pronounced without the final-o; they infyrtio (40) is always pronounced asö:[ˈfœ̌ʈːɪ].
Numbers between 21–99 are written in the following format:
For example:
Theett precedinghundra (100) andtusen (1000) is optional, but in compounds it is usually required.
Higher numbers include:
| 10 000 | tiotusen |
| 100 000 | hundratusen |
| 1 000 000 | enmiljon |
| 10 000 000 | tio miljoner |
| 100 000 000 | (ett)hundra miljoner |
| 1 000 000 000 | enmiljard[i] |
The cardinal numbers frommiljon and larger are true nouns and take the-er suffix in the plural. They are separated in written Swedish from the preceding number.
Any number can be compounded by simply joining the relevant simple cardinal number in the same order as the digits are written. Written with digits, a number is separated with a space between each third digit from the right. The same principle is used when a number is written with letters, although using letters becomes less common the longer the number is. However, round numbers, liketusen,miljon andmiljard are often written with letters as are small numbers (below 20).
| Written form | In components (do not use in written Swedish) | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | tjugoett /tjugoen | (tjugo-ett) / (tjugo-en) |
| 147 | etthundrafyrtisju etthundrafyrtiosju | (ett-hundra-fyrtio-sju) |
| 1 975 | ettusen niohundrasjuttifem ettusen niohundrasjuttiofem | (ett-tusen nio-hundra-sjuttio-fem) |
| 10 874 | tiotusen åttahundrasjuttifyra tiotusen åttahundrasjuttiofyra | (tio-tusen åtta-hundra-sjuttio-fyra) |
| 100 557 | etthundratusen femhundrafemtisju etthundratusen femhundrafemtiosju | (ett-hundra-tusen fem-hundra-femtio-sju) |
| 1 378 971 | en miljon trehundrasjuttiåtta tusen niohundrasjuttiett en miljon trehundrasjuttioåtta tusen niohundrasjuttioett | (en miljon tre-hundra-sjuttio-åtta tusen nio-hundra-sjuttio-ett) |
The decimal point is written as, (comma) and spelled and pronouncedkomma. The digits following the decimal point may be read individually or as a pair if there are only two. When dealing with monetary amounts (usually with two decimals), the decimal point is read asoch, i.e. "and": 3,50 (tre och femtio), 7,88 (sju och åttioåtta).
Ordinals from "first" to "twelfth":
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th |
| 1:a | 2:a | 3:e | 4:e | 5:e | 6:e | 7:e | 8:e | 9:e | 10:e | 11:e | 12:e |
| första | andra | tredje | fjärde | femte | sjätte | sjunde | åttonde | nionde | tionde | elfte | tolfte |
Those from "thirteenth" to "nineteenth", as well as "hundredth" and "thousandth", are formed from cardinal numerals with the suffix-de, e.g.trettonde (13:e),fjortonde (14:e),hundrade (100:e),tusende (1000:e).
Ordinals for the multiples of ten ("twentieth" to "ninetieth") are formed from cardinal numerals with the suffix-nde, e.g.tjugonde (20:e),trettionde (30:e).
Ordinals for higher numbers are formed from cardinal numerals with the suffix-te, e.g.miljonte ("millionth"). There is no ordinal formiljard ("billion").
Rational numbers are read as the cardinal number of the numerator followed by the ordinal number of the denominator compounded withdel or, if the numerator is higher than one,delar ("part(s)"). For those ordinal numbers that are three syllables or longer and end in-de, that suffix is usually dropped in favour of-del(ar). There are a few exceptions.
| 1⁄2 | enhalv ("one half") |
| 1⁄3 | en tredjedel |
| 3⁄4 | tre fjärdedelar |
| 2⁄5 | två femtedelar |
| 5⁄6 | fem sjättedelar |
| 4⁄7 | fyra sjundedelar |
| 1⁄8 | en åttondel oren åttondedel |
| 8⁄9 | åtta niondelar oråtta niondedelar |
| 1⁄10 | en tiondel oren tiondedel |
| 1⁄11 | en elftedel |
| 1⁄12 | en tolftedel |
| 1⁄13 | en trettondel oren trettondedel |
| 1⁄14 | en fjortondel oren fjortondedel |
| 1⁄15 | en femtondel oren femtondedel |
| 1⁄16 | en sextondel oren sextondedel |
| 1⁄17 | en sjuttondel oren sjuttondedel |
| 1⁄18 | en artondel oren artondedel |
| 1⁄19 | en nittondel oren nittondedel |
| 1⁄20 | en tjugondel oren tjugondedel |
Verbs do not inflect for person or number in modern standard Swedish. They inflect for thepresent andpast tense and theimperative,subjunctive, andindicative mood. Other tenses are formed by combinations of auxiliary verbs with infinitives or a special form of the participle called thesupine. In total there are six spoken active-voice forms for each verb: infinitive, imperative, present, preterite/past, supine, and past participle. The only subjunctive form widely used in everyday speech isvore, the past subjunctive ofvara ("to be"). It is used as one way of expressing the conditional ("would be", "were"), but is optional. Except for this form, subjunctive forms are considered archaic or dialectal.
Verbs may also take thepassive voice. It is formed for any verb tense by appending-s to the tense. For verbs ending in-r, the-r is actually replaced by the-s altogether. Verbs ending in-er often lose the-e- as well, other than in very formal style:stärker ("strengthens") becomesstärks orstärkes ("is strengthened"); exceptions are monosyllabic verbs and verbs where the root ends in-s. Swedish uses the passive voice more frequently than English.
Swedish verbs are divided into four groups:
| Group | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | regular-ar verbs |
| 2 | regular-er verbs |
| 3 | short verbs, ending in-r |
| 4 | strong and irregular verbs, ending in-er or-r |
About 80% of all verbs in Swedish are group 1 verbs, which is the onlyproductive verb group.Swenglish variants of English verbs can be made by adding-a to the end of an English verb, sometimes with minor spelling changes; the verb is then treated as a group 1 verb. Examples of modern loan words within the field arechatta andsurfa. Swenglish variants that may be used but are not considered standard Swedish includemaila/mejla ([ˈmɛ̂jla], "to email" or "mail") andsavea/sejva ([ˈsɛ̂jva], "to save").
The stem of a verb is based on the present tense of the verb. If the present tense ends in-ar, the-r is removed to form the stem, e.g.,kallar →kalla-. If the present tense ends in-er, the-er is removed, e.g.,stänger →stäng-. For short verbs, the-r is removed from the present tense of the verb, e.g.,syr →sy-. The imperative is the same as the stem.
| Group | Stem | Imperative | Infinitive | Present | Preterite/Past | Supine | Past participle | English | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kalla- | kalla! | kalla | — | kallar | -r | kallade | -de | kallat | -t | kallad kallat kallade | -d -t -de | to call |
| 2a | stäng- | stäng! | stänga | -a | stänger | -er | stängde | -de | stängt | -t | stängd stängt stängda | -d -t -da | to close |
| 2b | läs- | läs! | läsa | -a | läser | -er | läste | -te | läst | -t | läst läst lästa | -t -t -ta | to read |
| 3 | sy- | sy! | sy | — | syr | -r | sydde | -dde | sytt | -tt | sydd sytt sydda | -dd -tt -dda | to sew |
| 4 | stryk- | stryk! | stryka | -a | stryker | -er | strök | [i] | strukit | -it | struken struket strukna | -en -et -na | to strike out to iron to stroke |
| irregular | var- | var! | vara | är | var | varit | — | to be | |||||
| Tense | English | Swedish |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | to work | (att)arbeta |
| Present tense | I work | jag arbetar |
| Past tense, imperfect | I worked | jag arbetade |
| Past tense, perfect | I have worked | jag har arbetat |
| Future tense | I will/shall work | jag ska arbeta |
The irregular verbgå
| Tense | English | Swedish |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | to walk | (att)gå |
| Present tense | I walk | jag går |
| Past tense, imperfect | I walked | jaggick |
| Past tense, perfect | I have walked | jag har gått |
| Future tense | I will walk | jag ska gå |
As in all Germanic languages, strong verbs change their vowel sounds in the various tenses. For most Swedish strong verbs that have a verbcognate inEnglish orGerman, that cognate is also strong. For example, "to bite" is a strong verb in all three languages as well asDutch:
| Language | Infinitive | Present | Preterite/past | Supine/perfect | Past participle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swedish | bita | jag biter | jag bet | jag har bitit | biten,bitet,bitna |
| Dutch | bijten | ik bijt | ik beet | ik heb gebeten | gebeten |
| German | beißen | ich beiße | ich biss | ich habe gebissen | gebissen |
| English | tobite | I bite | I bit | I have bitten | bitten |
Thesupine (supinum) form is used in Swedish to form the composite past form of a verb. For verb groups 1–3 the supine is identical to the neuter form of the past participle. For verb group 4, the supine ends in-it while the past participle's neuter form ends in-et. Clear pan-Swedish rules for the distinction in use of the-et and-it verbal suffixes were codified with the first official Swedish Bible translation, completed 1541.
This is best shown by example:
The supine form is used afterha ("to have"). In English this form is normally merged with the past participle, or the preterite, and this was formerly the case in Swedish, too (the choice of-it or-et being dialectal rather than grammatical); however, in modern Swedish, they are separate, since the distinction of-it being supine and-et being participial was standardised.
The passive voice in Swedish is formed in one of four ways:
Thesubjunctive mood is very rarely used in modern Swedish and is limited to a few fixed expressions likeleve kungen, "long live the king". Present subjunctive is formed by adding the-e ending to the stem of a verb:
| Infinitive | Present tense indicative | Present tense subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| atttala, "to speak" | talar, "speak(s)" | tale, "may speak" |
| attbli, "to become" | blir, "become(s)" | blive, "may become" (the-v- comes from the older formbliva) |
| attskriva, "to write" | skriver, "write(s)" | skrive, "may write" |
| attspringa, "to run" | springer, "run(s)" | springe, "may run" |
| Infinitive | Past tense indicative | Supine indicative | Past tense subjunctive |
|---|---|---|---|
| attfinnas, "to exist (be)" | fanns, "existed (there was)" | funnits, "has existed (there has been)" | om det funnes tid, "if only there were time" (changes past tense-a- to supine-u-) |
| attbli, "to become" | blev, "became" | blivit, "have/has become" | om det bleve så, "if only it became so" (regular: just appends-e to the past tense) |
| attskriva, "to write" | skrev, "wrote" | skrivit, "written" | om jag skreve ett brev, "if I should write a letter" (regular: appends-e) |
In Swedish, the verbs used to conjugate similarly to modernIcelandic. In less formal Swedish the verbs started to lose their inflection regarding person already during the 16th century. The singular–plural distinction survived a bit longer, but came gradually out of use. In very formal language, the special plural forms appeared occasionally as late as the 1940s.
The plural forms are still found in historic texts and might thus have some importance. However, modern Swedish does not inflect verbs (except for tense), and the plural forms are archaic.
In the present tense, the plural was almost always the same as the infinitive. The only major exception wasäro (vi äro, "we are"). In the past tense, all weak verbs had the same form in singular and plural. The strong verbs appended an-o to the end form the plural. For some groups of strong verbs the plural also used another vowel than the singular. The groupi-a-u is a good example.
| Infinitive | Present tense singular | Present tense plural | Past tense singular | Past tense plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| attarbeta, "to work" | arbetar, "work(s)" (sing.) | arbeta, "work" (plur.) | arbetade, "worked" (sing.) | arbetade, "worked" (plur.)[i] |
| attleka, "to play (games)" | leker, "play(s)" (sing.) | leka, "play" (plur.) | lekte, "played" (sing.) | lekte, "played" (plur.)[i] |
| attbo, "to live (dwell)" | bor, "live(s)" (sing.) | bo, "live" (plur.) | bodde, "lived" (sing.) | bodde, "lived" (plur.)[i] |
| attfalla, "to fall" | faller, "fall(s)" (sing.) | falla, "fall" (plur.) | föll, "fell" (sing.) | föllo, "fell" (plur.)[ii] |
| attfinnas, "to exist (be)" | finns, "exists (there is)" (sing.) | finnas, "exist (there are)" (plur.) | fanns, "existed (there were/was)" (sing.) | funnos, "existed (there were)" (plur.)[iii] |
Unlike in more conservative Germanic languages (e.g.German), putting a noun into a prepositional phrase doesn't alter its inflection, case, number or definiteness in any way, except in a very small number of set phrases.
| Preposition | Meaning | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| på | on, upon | Råttan dansarpå bordet. | The rat dances on the table. |
| under | under | Musen dansarunder bordet. | The mouse dances under the table. |
| i | in | Kålle arbetari Göteborg. | Kålle works in Gothenburg. |
| vid | by | Jag ärvid sjön. | I am by the lake. |
| till | to | Ada har åkttill Göteborg. | Ada has gone to Gothenburg. |
| Preposition | Meaning | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| på | at | Vi sespå rasten. | See you at the break. |
| före | before | De var alltid tröttaföre rasten. | They were always tired before the break. |
| om | in | Kan vi ha rastom en timme? | May we have a break in an hour? |
| i | for | Kan vi ha rasti en timme? | May we have a break for an hour? |
| på | for (in a negative statement) | Vi har inte haft rastpå två timmar. | We have not had a break for two hours. |
| under | during | Vi arbetadeunder helgdagarna. | We worked during the holidays. |
The general rule is that prepositions are placed before the word they are referring to. However, there are a few so-calledambipositions that may appear on either side of the head:
| Adposition | Meaning | Succeeding adposition (postposition) | Preceding adposition (preposition) | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| runt | around | riketrunt | runt riket | around the kingdom |
| emellan | between | bröderemellan | emellan bröder | between brothers |
| igenom | through | nattenigenom | igenom natten | through the night |
Being a Germanic language, Swedishsyntax shows similarities to both English and German. All three languages have asubject–verb–object basic word order, but Swedish sides with English in keeping this order also inDependent clauses (where German puts the verb last). Like German, Swedish utilizesverb-second word order in main clauses, for instance afteradverbs, adverbial phrases, and dependent clauses. Adjectives generally precede the noun they determine, though the reverse is not infrequent in poetry. Nouns qualifying other nouns are almost always compounded on the fly; the last noun is the head.
A general word-order template may be drawn for a Swedish sentence, where each part, if it does appear, appears in this order.[9]
Main clause
| Fundament | Finite verb | Subject (if not fundament) | Clausal adverb/negation | Non-finite verb (in infinitive or supine) | Object(s) | Spatial adverb | Temporal adverb |
Subordinate clause
| Conjunction | Subject | Clausal adverb/Negation | Finite Verb | Non-finite verb (in infinitive or supine) | Object(s) | Spatial adverb | Temporal adverb |
The "fundament" can be whatever constituent that the speaker wishes to topicalize, emphasize as thetopic of the sentence. In the unmarked case, with no special topic, the subject is placed in the fundament position. Common fundaments are an adverb or object, but it is also possible to topicalize basically any constituent, including constituents lifted from a subordinate clause into the fundament position of the main clause:honom vill jag inte att du träffar (lit. "him want I not that you meet", i.e. "I don't want you to meet him") or even the whole subordinate clause:att du följer honom hem accepterar jag inte ("that you follow him home I do not accept"). An odd case is the topicalization of the finite verb, which requires the addition of a "dummy" finite verb in the V2 position, so that the same clause has two finite verbs:arbetade gjorde jag inte igår ("worked did I not yesterday").