Adjectives - Learn Swedish

Adjectives are words that are used to describe or provide extra information about a noun or pronoun. In this lesson you'll learn how to use adjectives in the Swedish language. You'll also learn some common Swedish adjectives. Useful sentence templates to use with adjectives are also included.

Online flashcards and a quiz are included to help you learn the Swedish adjectives included in this lesson.

Regular Adjectives

Swedish adjectives have different endings, based on the noun they modify. For example, the adjective grön, which means green has the following forms:

grön when used with nouns that use the indefinite article “en”
grönt when used with nouns that use the indefinite article “ett”
gröna when used with plural nouns or nouns with the definite article.

Examples

en grön kopp
a green cup

ett grönt hus
a green house

gröna hus
green houses

det gröna huset
the green house

Irregular Adjectives

The Swedish adjective for small is irregular.

liten when used with nouns that use the indefinite article “en”
litet when used with nouns that use the indefinite article “ett”
små when used with plural nouns or plural nouns with the definite article
lilla when used with singular nouns with the definite article

Examples

ett litet hus
a small house

det lilla huset
the small house

de små husen
the small houses

Swedish Phrases

Here are some useful sentence templates that you can use with adjectives. Practice combining these with the adjectives included in this lesson to help you improve your Swedish communication skills.

Jag är [adjective].	I am [adjective].
Är du [adjective]?	Are you [adjective]? (singular)
Är ni [adjective]?	Are you [adjective]? (plural)
Hon är [adjective].	She is [adjective].
Är hon [adjective].	Is she [adjective].
De är inte [adjective].	They are not [adjective].
Det är ganska [adjective].	It is quite [adjective].
Det är verkligen [adjective].	It is really [adjective].
Det är mycket [adjective].	It is very [adjective].
Det är så [adjective].	It is so [adjective].

Swedish Vocabulary

Here are some very common Swedish adjectives.

bred	wide
fel	wrong
gammal	old
hård	hard
hög	high, loud, tall
högljud	noisy
ledsen	sad
liten	small, little, short (not tall)
ljus	bright, light
lycklig	happy
låg	low
lång	long
långsam	slow
mjuk	soft
mörk	dark
ojämn	rough
rätt	right (correct)
slät	smooth
smal	narrow, slim
snabb	fast
stor	big
tjock	thick
torr	dry
trevlig	nice
trång	narrow, tight, cramped
trött	tired
tunn	thin
tyst	quiet, silent
ung	young
vacker	beautiful
våt	wet

Flashcards

Here are some flashcards to help you learn these common Swedish adjectives.

Read and Listen

Ja och Nej

Here is a small section from the story "Yes and No" by Helena Nyblom. Listen to it while reading it to help you improve your Swedish comprehension.

Ja och Nej	Yes and No
Han var en svartskäggig och svartögd man, stor och stark och skicklig till allt arbete. Ett gott förstånd hade han också, och hans ord var att lita på, men hans vilja var så hård som stångjärnet i hans smedjor, ja, ännu hårdare. Ty när stångjärnet blev glödgat och hamrarna började dansa på det, kunde till och med de hårdaste stänger böja sig, men hade Rolf en gång sagt: Jag vill! eller: Jag vill icke! så kunde ingen mänsklig makt förmå honom att ändra beslut.	He was a black-bearded and black-eyed man, big and strong and accomplished all the work. A good sense he had, too, and his word was to be trusted, but his will was so hard as rod iron in his smithy, yes, even harder. For when the iron rod was annealed and hammers began to dance on it, could even with the toughest closing bow down, but had Rolf once said: I want to! or: I don't want to! so could not a human power cause him to change his decision.

Ja och Nej

Yes and No

Han var en svartskäggig och svartögd man, stor och stark och skicklig till allt arbete. Ett gott förstånd hade han också, och hans ord var att lita på, men hans vilja var så hård som stångjärnet i hans smedjor, ja, ännu hårdare. Ty när stångjärnet blev glödgat och hamrarna började dansa på det, kunde till och med de hårdaste stänger böja sig, men hade Rolf en gång sagt: Jag vill! eller: Jag vill icke! så kunde ingen mänsklig makt förmå honom att ändra beslut.

He was a black-bearded and black-eyed man, big and strong and accomplished all the work. A good sense he had, too, and his word was to be trusted, but his will was so hard as rod iron in his smithy, yes, even harder. For when the iron rod was annealed and hammers began to dance on it, could even with the toughest closing bow down, but had Rolf once said: I want to! or: I don't want to! so could not a human power cause him to change his decision.

Quiz

Take this quiz to see how well you know the Swedish adjectives introduced in this lesson.

Pronouns Verbs