Swedish/Alphabet
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Return to Introduction to Swedish.
The Swedish alphabet contains 28 letters:
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Xx Yy Zz Åå Ää Öö
Notes
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. For a time, W was part of the alphabet, treated as a variation of V, but it is no longer a part of it (it is still used however, in some loanwords).
Special Characters
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 substiture å with aa, ä with ae, and ö with oe.
The Vovels
Vovels are divided into hard and soft vovels:
The hard vovels are: a o u å
The soft vovels are: e i y ä ö
When reading new Swedish words you should pay attention to if the vovels are short or long. Each vovel has both a long and a short phonetic variant. The basic rule is that a vovel is short if it is followed by more than one consonant.
Examples of words with long vovels:
Tal, sko, lur, vår, stel, bil, dyr, säl, öl
Examples of words with short vovels:
Tall, troll, surr, sånt, tenn, svinn, pynt, fält, trött
The Consonats
Most cononants can be doubled. k, is doubled with ck (Like in rock n' roll.) c, sounds like s when not combined with k (Like bicycle). C does not occur doubled. z, q, and w are very uncommon letters but are used in names. m is not doubled at end of words with some exceptions.
Examples of words with doubled consonants:
flabb, ledd, klaff, ragg, back, pall, damm, spinn, kupp, pirr, triss, titt
Tonality
Both nita and niten has the stress on the vovel i. However the tonality differs.