Online Language Review

Pronunciation guide to the Swedish language

As I said, the most difficult thing to start with, is the pronunciation. Therefore, you don't have to memorize all this at the beginning. You could just skim through it so as to get a rough idea of the basics. And then, as you expand your knowledge in Swedish, you could go back and try to make your pronunciation more Swedish. What you especially should look at is the tone and stress chapter and the phonems printed in bold.

The Swedish language has got two kinds of phonetical accents - the acute and the grave accents. The acute accent is the same as in many other languages. The tone is falling as in the English word speaker. This accent is employed in words of one syllable and in a few words of two or more syllables.

The grave accent is the one characteristic for the Swedish language, and it occurs in most words of more than one syllable. Here, the tone is falling too, on the first syllable, but the second syllable starts on a higher pitch than does the first, and a strong stress occurs. Most Swedish polysyllabic words have the main stress on the first syllable and the grave accent on one of the following syllables.

I will mark polysyllabic words employing the acute accent with an apostrophe (') behind the stressed syllable.

('segel = sail, the noun)Words using the grave accent are marked with a star (*) on the main stress syllable, and if needed, an apostrophe behind the syllable with the higher pitch

The following curve illustrates the pitch of the grave accent with the Swedish word *tala = to speak.

Here are some a couple of endings, all of which use the acute accent, stressed on the last syllable. It's not important that you memorize these endings at the beginning. Just learn to recognize them as you come across them.

-ang, -ant, -at, -ent, -eri, -ess, -ion, -ism, -ist, -log, -nom, -tris, -ur, -ör, -ös

Vowels: (all comparisons to English refer to the British pronunciation)

a [a:] as in father - ta = to take[a] as the the o in brother - katt = cat

o [o:] o exact English counterpart, but somewhat like the u in German rufen - ko = cow[o] like German u in und - hon = she

u [u:] no English counterpart, tongue position as for y but lips even more rounded - hus = house[u] somewhat like English er in letter, but lips rounded - brunn = a well

å [å:] similar to English saw - båt = boat[å] almost like English song - sång = song

e [e:] like the first part of the English here - se = to see[e] like English net - fett = fat

i [i:] similar to English ee in see, mouth more straightened - fil = file[i] almost like i in did - in = in

y [y:] similar to French rue and German müde, but lips more rounded and protruded - sy = to sew[y] the same but shorter, somewhat like German müssen and French lu - sytt = sewn

ä [ä:] before r similar to the first part of English hair - där = there. Else less open like French chaise - träd = tree[ä] before r like a in English carry - stjärt = bottom. Else like [e] - lätt = easy

ö [ö:] before r almost like i in bird - för = for. Else similar to French deux - söt = pretty[ö] before r like [ö:] befor r but shorter - dörr = door. Else like [ö:] but shorter - röst = voice

Consonants (I only write those whose pronunciation differs from the same letter in English)

d [d] as in English but put your tongue against the upper part of your teeth.

g [g] as in great when preceeding a,o,u,å or unstressed e[j] as English y in yes before e,i,y,ä,ö and after l and r

j [j] as y in English yes

k [k] as in English k before a,o,u and å[k] Somewhat like the ch in choose without the initial t-sound, or similar to German Ich

l [l] almost like English l, but with your tongue more to the front in your mouth

q [k] as English k

r [r] a roled r

t [t] similar to English t but with your tongue against the back of your teeth

w [v] as English v

x [ks] never [gz] as in English example, always [ks]

z, s [s] as English voiceless s

Certain combinations:

[s] ch, sk (before e,i,y,ä,ö), sj, schsi and ti (before -on), skj, stj, -ge and rs

Either you could pronounce it as sh in shall, but you could also use another sound similar to German ch in nach but softer.

[j] gj, lj, hj as y in English yes

[k] tj, ch (sometimes) see k above

[g] ng as in English sing

[gn] gn as it says

[gk] nk as it says

[k] ck as ck in English sick

[n] rn as n but with the tongue slightly further back in the mouth

[t] rt as t but with the tongue slightly further back in the mouth