Swedish Nouns, Articles, and Demonstratives
Swedish Nouns and Cases
Nouns in Swedish have two genders, common and neuter, which adjectives must agree with when modifying nouns. These genders are signified by the indefinite articles: en and ett. In the vocabulary lists, a noun followed by (n) means that it is a neuter noun and it takes the indefinite article ett. The majority of nouns in Swedish are common gender, so they take the indefinite article en.
The only case of nouns that is used in Swedish is the genitive (showing possession), and it is easily formed by adding an -s to the noun. This is comparable to adding -‘s in English to show possession. However, if the noun already ends in -s, then you add nothing (unlike English where we add -‘ or -‘s). Anders bok = Anders’s book
Swedish Articles and Demonstratives
There are two indefinite articles (corresponding to a and an) in Swedish: en and ett. En is used with most of the nouns (words denoting people almost always use en), but you will just have to learn which article goes with which noun. The definite article (the) is not a separate word like in most other languages. It is simply a form of the indefinite article attached to the end of the noun. Note that en words ending in a vowel retain that vowel and add an -n instead of adding -en. And ett words ending in -e just add a -t.|
En words (common)
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Ett words (neuter)
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Indefinite
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Definite
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Indefinite
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Definite
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| en banan | a banana | bananen | the banana | ett bord | a table | bordet | the table |
| en stol | a chair | stolen | the chair | ett kök | a kitchen | köket | the kitchen |
| en gata | a street | gatan | the street | ett äpple | an apple | äpplet | the apple |
| with en words | with ett words | with plural words | |
| this / these | den här biljetten – this ticket | det här tåget – this train | de här biljetterna – these tickets |
| that / those | den där biljetten – that ticket | det där tåget – that train | de där tågen – those trains |