Allow us to introduce the Swedish language!

How many people speak Swedish?

Swedish (svenska, svenska språket) is today spoken by more than 10 million people, the majority of whom (9.7 million) live in the Kingdom of Sweden (Konungariket Sverige).

Did you know that apart from being the official language of Sweden, Swedish is also the second official language of Finland? This is because the two countries have much shared history.   Apart from Finland, Swedish is also spoken by Swedish immigrants in Canada and Australia.

The Swedish alphabet

The Swedish language uses the Roman alphabet.
 
The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters.
When learning Swedish, there are three letters to particularly note:
 
Å / å, Ä / ä, Ö / ö

The Pronunciation of the Swedish alphabet

Would you like to hear how the Swedish alphabet is pronounced? We have asked a Swedish native speaker to pronounce the Swedish alphabet for you. Simply press the play button to hear the Swedish ABC.

Swedish and the other Scandinavian languages

If you can speak Swedish, then you can communicate with Danes and Norwegians.
 
However it must be noted that this is not always easy.
In Norway the pronunciation of the language is sometimes quite different.
To learners of Swedish the Norwegian pronunciation of words might seem “less clear”.
The Norwegian pronunciation can therefore be a bit difficult for beginners to understand.
 
The pronunciation of Icelandic is already so removed from Swedish, Danish or Norwegian that it is difficult to communicate on the island or with Icelanders in Swedish.

Swedish – A North Germanic/Scandinavian language

The Swedish language belongs to the Nordic or Northern Germanic group of languages, which in turn belong to the Indo-European group of languages.

Other branches of the Indo-European family of languages include West Germanic (e.g. German and English), Slavic (e.g. Polish and Russian) and the Baltic (e.g. Lithuanian and Latvian).
 
Nordic languages are spoken today by about 20 million people worldwide.

Would you like to know more about Sweden and the Swedish language?

We are delighted about your interest in Sweden and its language.

• Do you know the website of “The Swedish Institute for language and folklore” (Institutet för språk och folkminnen).
  This website has lots of information about the Swedish language and culture.
• Perhaps Sweden’s most famous literary figure is Pippi Longstocking:
  if you would like to know more about this wild and cheeky young girl click here.
  For more information about her “Mother” and “Creator”, Astrid Lindgren, click here.
• Here is the entry about the Swedish language from Wikipedia.
• If you would like to learn Swedish, here are the Swedish courses from 17 Minute Languages.
  We offer online courses in Swedish at every level.
  A1/A2: Basic Swedish
  B1/B2: Advanced Swedish
  C1/C2: Advanced Swedish Vocabulary
  B1-C2: Business Swedish
• If you are planning a visit to Sweden, this website will be very useful:
  Visit Sweden