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Swedish
Words & Phrases
Swedish
is the official and most common language in Sweden.
The Swedish
alphabet consists of twenty-nine letters, the regular twenty-six
of the English alphabet, plus å (Å), ä (Ä),
& ö (Ö). These characters all represent vowels.
In Swedish, ö is even an entire word, meaning island.
Swedish
is closely related to 3 of the other Scandinavian languages
– Danish, Icelandic and Norwegian, though is significantly
different from Finnish. The Swedish, Danish and Norwegian
languages were derived from Old Norse about a millennium ago.
Most Swedish words are of Germanic origin or are borrowed
from Latin, French, German, or English.
Sami is
one of the largest minority languages found in Sweden and
is still used extensively by the Sami population.
English
is taught as a compulsory second language from the 4th grade
on in schools in Sweden. Many Swedes also speak German and
French.
Vocabulary
| Seasons: |
Family: |
| Winter
– vinter (vin-teur) |
Mother
– mor (en muhr) |
| Spring
– vår |
Father
– far (en fahr) |
| Summer
– sommar |
Grandmother
– mormor; farmor (muhr-muhr; far-muhr) |
| Autumn
– höst |
Grandfather
– morfar; farfar (muhr-far; far-farv) |
| |
Son
– son |
| |
Daughter
– dotter |
| |
Sister
– syster |
| |
Brother
– bror (bruhr) |
| |
Paternal
Aunt – faster |
| |
Maternal
Aunt - moster |
| |
Paternal
Uncle – far|bror |
| |
Maternal
Uncle - mor|bror |
| Colours: |
Numbers: |
| white
– vit (weet) |
Zero
- nål (noll) |
| gray
– grå |
One
– en, ett (ehn, et) |
| black
– svart (svahrt) |
Two
– två (tvoh) |
| red
– röd (roehd) |
Three
– tre (treh) |
| purple
– purpur |
Four – fyra (feu-ra) |
| paysaa
– money |
Five
– fem (fem) |
| yellow
– gul (geuhl) |
Six
– sex (sex) |
| green
– grön (groen) |
Seven
– sju (shoe) |
| pink
– skär |
Eight
– åtta (oht-ta) |
| orange
– apelsin |
Nine
– nio (nee-uh) |
| brown
– brun (brewn) |
Ten – tio (tee-uh) |
| blue
– blå (bloh) |
|
| gold
– gyllene |
|
| silver
– silver |
|
|
|
