The Swedish language consists of approximately 126 000 words according to SAOL (Svenska Akademiens Ordlista).
This can be compared to the English language which consists of around 750 000 words, with new ones added on a weekly basis.
The Swedish alphabet
There are 29 letters in the Swedish alphabet, which is a form of the (modern) Latin alphabet. The letters A- Z are basic letters while the three last letters (Å, Ä, Ö) are modified with so called diacritical marks and originally written as A and O.
These last three letters didn’t become a part of the alphabet until the beginning of the 14:th century, hence there is no rune (runic sign) for it.
Influences from other languages
English is also the language from wich Swedes borrow the most words and expressions from. The truth is that around half of the words that we count as Swedish are in fact English. However, we have’nt always been that influensed by the English language.
During the Middle ages the German language held the position of “the main influencer” of the Swedish language, followed by the French language; a period that lasted for almost two centuries (1600-1700).
Examples of German words that are now part of the Swedish language:
Ganska (quite), trappa (staircase), arbete (work), betala (pay).
Examples of French words that are now part of the Swedish language:
Trottoar (sidewalk), paraply (umbrella), persienner (blindfolders), magnifik (magnificent).
Commonly used Swedish words
The most commonly used Swedish words are so called prepositions. This means that they usually precede nouns as well as indicates (somewhat generalized) concrete and/or abstract conditions, such as time, place and direction.
Examples of commonly used Swedish words:
Och (and), det (it), på (on), från (from), men (but), inte (not), han/hon (he/she), har (have/has), om (if).
Examples of Swedish words that are often misspelled:
Abborre (perch), lugnt (calm), handduk (towel), noggrann (meticulous), parallell (parallel).
Copyright 2024, Petra Roman
MrsSwede - A Blog About Sweden and The Swedes 