Learn A Language

Swedish Part One

These facts are taken from Wikipedia.

Swedish is mainly spoken in Sweden and Finland.

Swedish is a North Germanic language.

Roughly 8.7 million people speak this language.

Swedish is a defendant of Old Norse.

The Swedish Alphabet

These facts are taken from personal.psu.edu

Consonant

b, d, f, h, l, m, n, p, r, t, v, and x are pronounced and written in English.

G is always spoken as if you are saying 'gun'

The r is rolled as if you are talking Spanish

When r is followed by d, l, or t, it turns silent and the next vowel is lengthened.

In Southern Sweden the r is pronounced in the back of the throat like German

D, t, and n are pronounced with the tongue touching the back of the teeth

S is always pronounced as if you are saying 'sell'

These next consonants are spelled and pronounced differently than English.

C is pronounced like 'sit' when in front of e, i, or y

Otherwise c is pronounced as 'k'

G is pronounced as 'y' when I front of e, i, y, ä, or ö.

Before a, o, å, u it is pronounced as a hard g like in the English word 'go'

J is always pronounced as 'y' as in the word 'yes'

K is pronounced some what like 'sh' before e, i, y, ä, or ö

The correct way to pronounce k when before the letters above is in between 'sh' and 'ch'. Basically you say 'sh' but with your tongue further back in your mouth and your lips rounded.

Before a, o, å, or u k is pronounced hard as in the word 'kill'

The letters q, w, and z are often not used unless talking about foreign words (sorry if that doesn't make any sense)

Q is pronounced like 'k'

W is pronounced like 'v'

Z is pronounced like 's'

Combinations

Dj, gj, hj, lj are all pronounced as the Swedish j.

Sch, sj, skj, stj are pronounced like the Swedish 'k' between 'sh' and 'ch'

Sk is pronounced the same as above but only before e, i, y, ä, and ö. Otherwise it is pronounced as the 'sc' in English word 'scare'

Tj and kj are pronounced like the English 'sh' as in 'show'

Ch is pronounced as the Swedish tj and kj before e, i, y, ä, and ö. But pronounced as the sj or stj sound before a, o, å, and u. But this is not common.

Ng as in 'singer' and 'rang' but when followed by a stressed syllable it is pronounced as in 'finger'

Rg- the g is pronounced as y

Vowels

A- long a is pronounced as the British word 'Father' and when short sounds like the 'u' in 'must'

Å- sounds like 'home' but without the glide

E- short: as in 'set' and long like the French letter é but with no glide

Ä- when short it sounds the same as short e but when long sounds like the a sound in 'air' or 'plain'

I- when long 'ee' as in 'feed' or 'machine'. when short like the sound in 'bit'

Ö- Short as in the French words 'pue' and 'le' when long it sounds like the German word 'schön'

O- when long it sounds like the 'oo' in 'food' but when short it sounds like the 'oo' in 'good'

Y- when long it sounds like the German ü. To make this sound you round your lips as if you were to say 'o' but instead say 'ee'. When short it is a clipped version

U- when long a tighter and more pronounced version of the Swedish 'y' but when short a looser less rounded sound.