Swedish

Introduction

Swedish-speaking areas

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish.

Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era.

Swedish language periods

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• Runic Swedish (800-1225)
• Early Old Swedish (1225-1375)
• Late Old Swedish (1375-1526)
• Early Modern Swedish (1526-1750)
• Late Modern Swedish (1750-1880)
• Early Contemporary Swedish (1880-)
• Contemporary Swedish (1950-)

Swedish languages

[Edit] There are many variants of standard Swedish. Some of these are considered dialects and other as separate languages.

The Verb

Verbs do not inflect for person or number. (Early Contemporary Swedish also inflected in number)

Verbs inflect for the present tense, past tense, imperative and indicative mood. Other tenses are formed by combinations of auxiliary verbs with infinitives or a special form of the participle called the "supine".

In total there are 6 spoken active-voice forms for each verb: infinitive, imperative, present, preterite/past, supine, and past participle. The only subjunctive form used in everyday speech is vore, the past subjunctive of vara ("to be"). It is used as one way of expressing the conditional ("would be", "were"), but is optional. Except for this form, subjunctive forms are considered archaic.

Swedish verbs are divided into four groups:

1. regular -ar verbs
2. regular -er verbs
3. short verbs, end in -r
4. strong and irregular verbs, end in -er or -r

Sample verb: hitta

Click verbs to conjugate them in the table above!

• hitta (regular -ar verb),
• kalla (regular -ar verb),
• stänga (regular -er verb),

Conjugate all Swedish verbs at Verbix

References

• Bergman, Gösta. Kortfattad svensk språkhistoria. Bokförlaget Prisma, Stockholm. Berlingska Boktryckeriet, Lund. 1969.
• Hellqvist, Elof. Svensk etymologisk ordbok. C.W.K. Gleerups förlag. Lund. 1939.
• Pelkonen, Lauri. Miettinen Karin ja Eino. Ruotsin Kielioppi. Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. Porvoo. 1971.
• Rydqvist, Johan Er.. Svenska språkets lagar. S. Magnus' förlag. Stockholm. 1850.
• Siegberg, Artur. Lyhennetty ruotsin kielioppi. Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. 6 edition. Porvoo. 1919.
• Sundén, D.A.. Svensk språklära för folkskolan. J. Beckmans förlag. 35 edition. Stockholm. 1918.
• Thorell, Olof. Svensk Grammatik. Norstedts Tryckeri. Stockholm. 1977.