A Pronunciation Guide To The Swedish Alphabet From Ö To Ä To Å 

The Swedish writing system may be similar to ours, but the differences in spelling can look a little intimidating to someone who doesn’t know the language. Swedish words have ö’s and å’s and j’s in many words where you probably haven’t seen j’s before.  With just a little work, you can fully demystify the Swedish letters, which will give you a leg up on learning the rest of the Swedish language.

Here, we’ll guide you through the Swedish alphabet and give you a closer look at the letters that give new learners the most trouble.

The Swedish Alphabet (Svenska Alfabetet)

At a glance, the modern Swedish alphabet is nearly identical to the English one — both use the Latin alphabet  as their basis — with just a few additions. The Swedish alphabet consists of 29 letters while the English alphabet only has 26. That’s three additional vowels. While there is no Swedish alphabet song that has the ubiquity of the English one, you can listen to this version if having a song helps.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Å Ä Ö

The most important thing to note here is that the three extra letters at the end — Å, Ä and Ö — are separate from the A and O they resemble. The diacritics indicate that those three are pronounced differently.

Swedish Vowels and their Pronunciation

While there are fewer vowels than consonants in the Swedish alphabet, the former will give you the most trouble. First, each one is either soft or hard, which affects the consonant before it. Also, each one can be pronounced at least two ways. When one appears before two consonants, before a word-final M or N, or is in the final, unstressed syllable of a word, it is short. When one appears before one consonant or is in a one-syllable word ending with a vowel, it is long. This may seem a little confusing, but listen to the examples here and you’ll get the hang of it.

A

• A is hard.
• It most often sounds like the “a” in “father.”
• Short: tack (“thank you”)
• Long: bra (“good”)

E

• E is soft.
• A short E sounds like the “e” in “set,” while the long E sounds like the “e” in “year.”
• Short: mellan (“between”)
• Long: resa (“travel”)

I

• I is soft.
• The I always sounds like the “ee” in “week.”
• Short: till (“to”)
• Long: bil (“car”)

O

• O is hard.
• The short O sounds like the “o” in “shop,” while the long O sounds like the “oo” in “wool.”
• Short: komma (“to come”)
• Long: osäker (“insecure”)

U

• U is hard.
• The Swedish U is kind of pronounced like the U in English, but further back in the throat. It’s almost like an “ew” sound.
• Short: buss (“bus”)
• Long: du (“you”)

Y

• Y is soft.
• There is no exact English equivalent to the Swedish Y. To pronounce it, try saying “ee” (as in “week”) but round your lips.
• Short: flytta (“to move”)
• Long: sy (“to sew”)

Å

• Å is hard.
• This letter’s appearance is a little misleading. It sounds kind of like the “o” in “or.”
• Short: Gårdsby (place in Sweden)
• Long: hej då (“goodbye”)

Ä

• Ä is soft.
• The Ä has a somewhat nasal sound, like the “ai” in “air.”
• Short: Gällivare (place in Sweden)
• Long: äta (“to eat”)

Ö

• Ö is soft.
• The pronunciation is kind of like the “er” sound in “her.”
• Short: köttbullar (“meatballs”)
• Long: öl (“beer”)

How to Pronounce Swedish Consonants 

Most Swedish consonants make similar sounds to their English counterparts. There are a few exceptions, however, and we’ll walk through some of the most common letters and letter combinations that give learners trouble.

G, GN and NG

• The letter G has two main pronunciations. The first one sounds like the letter “g” in “get,” and it’s pronounced this way when it appears before A, O, U and Å.
  • gata — street
  • Gotland — a Swedish island
• When it comes before a soft vowel (E, I, Y, Ä or Ö), the G sounds like the “y” in “yet.”
  • gärna — gladly
  • gift — married
• The letter G also has the soft pronunciation when it comes after an R or an L.
  • älg — elk
  • Berga — a place in Sweden
• The letters NG together sound like the “ng” in “young.”
  • ung — young
  • singel — single
• The more complicated part is GN, which sounds like the “ng” in “young” quickly followed by another “n.”
  • regn — rain
  • signal — signal

J

• The letter J is one of the most difficult in the Swedish alphabet. It changes depending on the letter that precedes it. When it’s at the start of a word or after a vowel, it makes a “y” sound.
  • hej då — goodbye
  • jäst — yeast
• The letter combination SJ is unique to Swedish. Pronounce the letter “h” as in “hat,” but move it further back in your mouth and round your lips. This same pronunciation is used for the first sound in word endings -tion and -sion.
  • sjö — lake
  • sjukhus — hospital
  • station — station
  • diskussion — discussion
• The combo TJ is pronounced kind of like the “sh” in “ship.”
  • tjugo — twenty
  • tjena — hi
• The letter combos LJ, DJ, GJ and HJ all ignore the first letter and are pronounced like the “y” in “yet.”
  • gjorde — made
  • Ljusdal — place in Sweden
  • Djurmo — place in Sweden
  • Hjo — place in Sweden

K and SK

• Like the G, the Swedish K also has two pronunciations depending on the following vowel. In front of A, O, U and Å and at the end of a word, it makes the same sound as the “k” in “kiss.”
  • kul — fun
  • kål — cabbage
• In front of E, I, Y, Ä or Ö and the letter J, it makes the same sound as the “sh” in “ship” (it’s identical to TJ, as we discussed in the last section).
  • Kina — China
  • köra — to drive
  • kjol — skirt
• The combo SK also has two combinations. In front of A, O, U and Å , it’s identical to the “sk” in “skate.”
  • Skara — place in Sweden
  • sko — shoe
• When it’s in front of E, I, Y, Ä, Ö, or J, it’s pronounced like the SJ sound discussed above.
  • skön — nice
  • skiva — slice

RS

• When you see the letter combo RS, the S is pronounced like the “sh” in “shop.”
  • korsning — junction
  • varsågod — here you go

Q, W and Z

While the letters Q, W and Z are all part of the Swedish alphabet, they’re relatively rare. They’re usually only used in old terms and loanwords. The letter W was considered identical with V until recently, the Q was mostly replaced by K and the Z was mostly replaced by S.

Swallowed Letters

The one last thing we want to note about the Swedish alphabet is that letters are “swallowed” very often. Unfortunately, this just makes things more confusing for the Swedish learner. There are a few rules you can learn — the “k” in “skt” letter combos is often silent, the R is barely audible when it appears before D, L, T and N — but there’s a lot you’ll have to learn through listening to native speakers. Now that you’ve got the Swedish alphabet down, you’re ready to branch out and learn more of this diverse language.

Typing Swedish Letters