Letters and numbers form the basis for the vast majority of human communication. You probably have the Swedish alphabet down already, so now it’s time to dive into learning Swedish numbers and their counting system. Next time you’re in Sweden and need to turn left at the third fjord, or just at Ikea counting minimalist end tables, it’s handy to know how to list and pronounce the numbers. Here’s a quick guide to counting in Swedish, starting with noll (“zero”). Fortunately, they used Arabic numerals just like English and the Swedish language has predictable patterns that are easy for learners to grasp.
Swedish Numbers From Zero To Twenty
Starting with the basics, here’s how to count from zero to twenty. Press the play button to hear how they’re pronounced.
zero — noll
one — ett
two — två
three — tre
four — fyra
five — fem
six — sex
seven — sju
eight — åtta
nine — nio
ten — tio
eleven — elva
twelve — tolv
thirteen — tretton
fourteen — fjorton
fifteen — femton
sixteen — sexton
seventeen — sjutton
eighteen — arton
nineteen — nitton
twenty — tjugo
Swedish has two words for one, but don’t let that confuse you. En and ett are used in different contexts. Like many other Germanic languages, Swedish grammar has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. En is paired with masculine and feminine gendered nouns while ett is paired with neuter gendered nouns.
As you’ve probably noticed for numbers thirteen to nineteen, the -ton suffix works similarly to -teen in English. That makes them intuitive for English speakers to memorize.
Numbers in Swedish: The Rest Of The Tens
The next step is to learn the other “tens,” which form the building blocks for all numbers between twenty and one hundred. Again, with a language like Swedish, it’s helpful to hear how the words are pronounced to learn how to say them. Press the play button to listen.
thirty — trettio
forty — fyrtio
fifty — femtio
sixty — sextio
seventy — sjuttio
eighty — åttio
ninety — nittio
one hundred — hundra
As you can see, these also follow an intuitive, logical pattern that is easy for beginners to grasp: they add -tio to the base number like English does with -ty. Tjugo is the only exception, which is why it made more sense to include it in the previous section.
Forming Numbers With What You’ve Learned So Far
Once you’ve mastered the foundational numbers above, you can begin to put everything together to form all the numbers in between. Fortunately, Swedish makes this very easy to learn. You, quite literally, just put the numbers together. So, twenty-four is tjugofyra, and eighty-two is åttiotvå. That’s all there is to it! You can expand on these patterns to form larger numbers as well.
Swedish Ordinal Numbers
Now that we’ve covered Swedish counting, let’s cover another important use of numbers: ordinals. Ordinal numbers show rank or position in a series like first, second, and third. Here are some examples of Swedish ordinal numbers.
first – första (1:a)
second – andra (2:a)
third – tredje (3:e)
fourth – fjärde (4:e)
fifth – femte (5:e)
sixth – sjätte (6:e)
seventh – sjunde (7:e)
eighth – åttonde (8:e)
ninth – nionde (9:e)
tenth – nionde (10:e)
For the most part, ordinal numbers add a -de or -te suffix to the cardinal number they correspond to, though note that some change the spelling. To abbreviate ordinal numbers with numerals, simply add a colon and the last vowel in the word. In compound numbers, only the second digit is modified with the ending, just like twenty-one becomes twenty-first in English.
Learning the numbers and counting system is an important step in language learning. From shopping to phone numbers to telling time, you’ll need to know how to say them to operate in day to day life. Now you’re ready to take the next step and start building your Swedish vocabulary.