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The Swedish language

The Swedish language was only formally declared the main or the official language of Sweden in 2009 by a language law. Spoken by about 10 million people around the world, Swedish is a Northern Germanic language, prevalent mainly in Sweden and Finland, as well as being widely spoken in the United Kingdom and Canada. It also bears some resemblance to the Danish and Norwegian languages – knowing one of these languages certainly helps understand the other two.

There are 29 letters in the Swedish alphabet, including the standard 26 letters from Latin. Swedish language draws its vocabulary from Greek and Latin, especially in the case of science and religion, and transcribed French words are also prevalent along with Romani, German and some English influences.

How Easy is it to Learn Swedish?

It does take a lot of effort to learn Swedish or any other foreign language for that matter. The task, however, can be made easier as the Swedish language is not very different from English; the two languages’ grammatical structure is quite similar to some extent. The syntax is a mix of German and English, usually ordered as subject-verb-object format. Swedish, however, varies from English in the usage of perfect participles, but pronoun and preposition usage is fairly similar. Another variation is that modern Swedish grammar has two noun genders - neuter and common, instead of the usual masculine, feminine and neuter genders. Mastering these native grammatical nuances is what makes learning Swedish quite interesting when compared to some of the other foreign languages.

Signing Up for a Swedish Course

Those looking to learn Swedish can in fact explore several learning options and settle for the one that most suits their purpose, time, budget and learning style. It has been observed that some of us are good at learning from books and other printed materials, yet there are others who do well by simply listening to the spoken language. Few of us are good at learning from audio-visual presentations.

Accordingly, learners can attend regular language classes, learn Swedish at school or college, start by reading books according to the complexity level – Kick off with the alphabet and children’s books, or sign up for an online Swedish course or a few classes. A formal Swedish course or class is, of course, for those who can afford the time and money essential for attending regular classes. Online courses from reputed institutions also offer the same quality of learning in a cost-effective and convenient package. Either way, learning a new language does require some self-discipline and loads of dedication.

The Swedish Language at Babbel.com

Do check out the Swedish course at Babbel.com for a unique, innovative and interesting language learning experience. Babbel presents the learner with several interactive and fun ways to learn Swedish and other languages. Themed multimedia lessons across different learning levels, extensive vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation exercises, voice recognition to evaluate phonetics, community chat to enable group learning and mobile apps to review progress and continuously improve language skills are but few of the features on offer.
So that you can study anytime -- or during the time in between -- there are several ways to access the learning system. Babbel.com is a multimedia website that can be accessed from any computer with internet or a mobile device (online or offline). Babbel Mobile lets you learn on-the-go: On your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and on Android devices. With this app you can make use of time that might have otherwise been wasted.

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