Swedish/Alphabet

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 substitute å with aa, ä with ae, and ö with oe. ǎ

The Vowels

Vowels are divided into hard and soft vowels:

The hard vowels are: a o u å

The soft vowels are: e i y ä ö

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.

Examples of words with long vowels:

Tal, sko, lur, vår, stel, bil, dyr, säl, öl

Examples of words with short vowels:

Tall, troll, surr, sånt, tenn, svinn, pynt, fält, trött

The Consonants

Most cononants can be doubled. k, is doubled with ck (Like in rock n' roll.) The consonant c, sounds like s when not combined with k (Like the first c in bicycle). C does not occur doubled. z, q, and w are very uncommon letters but are used in family and company names. m is not doubled at end of words with two exceptions: lamm, 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 this letter is pronounced j if the next letter is a soft vowel.
If the first letter in a word is k this letter is pronounced sh (like in ship) if the next letter is a soft vowel.

Stress

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

Tonality

Both nita and niten has the stress on the vowel i. However the tonality differs.

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