Lesson 1

Vocabulary

Hej [hej]	Hi
Hej då [hej då:]	Good bye
God morgon [go:d *mårån]	Good morning
Tack [tak]	Thank you/Please
Tack så mycket [tak så: *myket]	Thank you very much
Varsågod [vaså:'go:d]	You're welcome / Here you are
Ja [ja:]	Yes
Nej [nej]	No
Ursäkta [u:'säkta]	Excuse me / Pardon
Förlåt [fö:r'lå:t]	I'm sorry
Bra [bra:]	Good / Well
Jag [ja:g]	I
Du [du:]	You (sing.)
Han [han]	He
Hon [hon]	She
Den [den]	It (common gender)
Det [de:t]	It (neuter)
Vi [vi:]	We
Ni** [ni:]	You (plur.), formal you sing. and plur.
De [de:] / most common [dåm]	They

**Nowadays, ni isn't used very much as formal sing. We usually address everybody with du.
There is a Swedish pronoun man which is used in common aspects such as Man kan inte göra allt = One can't do everything.

Numbers 0-10

noll [nål]	0
ett [et]	1
två [två:]	2
tre [tre:]	3
fyra [*fy:ra]	4
fem [fem]	5
sex [seks]	6
sju [su:]	7
åtta [*åta]	8
nio [*ni:o]	9
tio [*ti:o]	10

Nouns 1

The Swedish nouns are divided into two genders, neuters (n) and common genders (r). In most cases, you can't tell whether a noun is a neuter or a common gender. You'll simply have to memorize the gender for each noun you learn. However, there are a few rules, with help of which you'll easier remember it. One of them tells that all nouns having to do with people or professions are common gender.

Neuters use the indefinite article ett and common genders use en. The pronoun det (it) is similarly used for neuters and den (it too) is used for common genders.

Some nouns

ett barn [et ba:rn]	child
en flicka [en *flika]	girl
en pojke [*pojke]	boy
ett fönster ['fönster]	window
ett bord [bo:d]	table
en man [man]	man
en kvinna [*kvina]	woman
en bok [bo:k]	book
en telefon [tele'få:n]	telephone
en stol [sto:l]	chair
en dörr [dör]	door
ett vykort [*vy:kot]	postcard
en penna [*pena]	pen(cil)
ett rum [rum]	room
ett badrum [*ba:drum]	bathroom
ett hotell [ho'tel]	hotel
ett frimärke [*fri:märke]	stamp

That's it, what could you do now?
You could enter a shop saying

God morgon, en penna tack! Hej då

Not much but you would be perfectly understood! If you want to produce more advanced sentences, you have to learn some verbs.

Verbs 1(The infinitive and the present tense)

Verbs are the key to every language. Just by mentioning äta you will be understood. (You wouldn't be looked upon as a very intelligent person though.)

In Swedish, a verb employs the same form in all persons, whereas English for example uses different forms for different persons. Thus, the verb vara conjugates as follows in the present tense:

Jag	är (compared to English>	I	am
Du	är	You	are
Han	är	He	is
Hon	är	She	is
Den	är	It	is
Det	är	It	is
Vi	är	We	are
Ni	är	You	are
De	är	They	are

As you can see, this is very easy. Therefore you only have to learn one form for every verb in each tense.

Most Swedish verbs are regular, but the most frequently used are irregular.

Regular verbs, infinitive and present tense

All polysyllabic Swedish verbs end with an a in the infinitive. (Others, those of one syllable end with any vowel.) There are two conjugations of regular verbs - group 1 adding an r to the stem in the present tense and group two adding er to the stem. The Swedish word corresponding to the English to in to go for example is att.

Example:

Group 1:	Verb:	Tala (to speak)	Group 2:	Verb:	Köpa (to buy)
	Stem:	Tala-		Stem:	Köp-
	Present tense:	Talar		Present tense:	Köper
Group 1:	Verb:	Älska (to love)	Group 2:	Verb:	Hjälpa (to help)
	Stem:	Älska-		Stem:	Hjälp-
	Present tense:	Älskar		Present tense:	Hjälper

And as I said before, the verbs conjugate in the same way in all persons.

Almost all irregular verbs form their present tense as does groupe 2.

Example:

skriva (to write)
skriv- + er =
skriver
han skriver = He writes

• The verb vara (to be) and ha (to have) are irregular and have the forms är and har in the present tense.
  (Jag är = I am, Jag har = I have)

• Monosyllabic verbs are almost always irregular and form the present tense by adding an r.

Example:

se (to see)
se + r =
ser
hon ser = she sees

Pronunciation

• Now we're back to that pronunciation again! Two-syllabic verbs all have the grave accent in the infinitive. Verbs with three or more syllables often have the accute accent on the second last syllable.

• In the present tense, group 1 verbs with two syllables all have the grave accent and all others of two syllabels have the accute accent on the first syllable. Almost all verbs of more than two syllables stress the second-last syllable with an accute accent.

Example:

Tala (1) = [*ta:la], Talar = [*ta:lar]

Köpa (2) = [*kö:pa], Köper = ['kö:per]

Skriva (i) = [*skri:va], Skriver = ['skri:ver]

Diskutera (1) = [disku:'te:ra], Diskuterar = [disku:'te:rar] (diskutera = discuss)

Some verbs:

Tala (1) [*ta:la]	to speak
Prata (1) [*pra:ta]	to talk
Studera (1) [stu:'de:ra]	to study
Älska (1) [*älska]	to love
Köpa (2) [*kö:pa]	to buy
Hjälpa (2) [*hjälpa]	to help
Skriva (i) [*skri:va]	to write
Äta (i) [ä:ta]	to eat
Vara (i) [*va:ra] Present tense = är [ä:r]	to be
Heta (2) [*he:ta]	like "to have the name"
Ringa (2) [*riga]	to call
Se (i) [se:]	to see

Now that you know some verbs and nouns, you could construct more advanced sentences such as

Jag heter Björn Engdahl = My name is Björn Engdahl
Han köper en boll = He buys a ball

Exercise - Translate the following sentences into Swedish

A boy writes a postcard
They help a woman
You (sing.) love a man
She studies Swedish (=svenska)
We buy a stamp
You (plur.) see it. (ref. to the table)

Click here for answers

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