Swedish Nouns
In this lesson you'll learn how to use nouns in the Swedish language. Nouns are words that name a person, place, or thing. The Swedish definite and indefinite articles are also discussed.
All nouns in Swedish belong to either a common or a neuter gender. The gender of the noun affects the form of adjectives related to it, as well as the definite and indefinite article.
Definite Article
The definite article is appended to the noun in swedish. For common singular nouns append en. For neuter nouns append et and for both common and neuter plural nouns, append na to the plural form of the noun.
Indefinite Article
As in English, the indefinite article precedes the noun. For common nouns the indefinite article is en and for neuter nouns it is ett.
| en kvinna | a woman |
| ett finger | a finger |
| en våg | a wave |
| ett äpple | an apple |
| en arm | an arm |
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Plural
There are five different plural endings or, ar, er, en, or no plural form.
Plural form -or
All nouns in this category belong to the common gender. Most Singular forms of the nouns in this category end in a, though there are a few exceptions. The words with an -a suffix in the singular indefinite uses -an to make the singular definite. The other words use -en.
| kvinna | woman |
| kvinnor | women |
| kvinnan | the woman |
| kvinnorna | the women |
Plural form -ar
All nouns in this category belong to the common gender, except finger which is neuter.
| våg | wave |
| vågor | waves |
| vågen | the wave |
| vågorna | the waves |
Plural form -(e)r
This category contains both common and neuter nouns. Some nouns in this category change their stem vowel in the plural form as well.
| sko | shoe |
| skor | shoes |
| skon | the shoe |
| skorna | the shoes |
| land | land |
| länder | lands |
| landet | the land |
| länderna | the lands |
| hand | hand |
| händer | hands |
| handen | the hand |
| händerna | the hands |
Plural form -(e)n
There are only neuter words in this category.
| äpple | apple |
| äpplen | apples |
| äpplet | the apple |
| äpplena | the apples |
Plural form (-)
There are both common and neuter nouns in this category. There is no plural ending though sometimes there is a vowel change.
| barn | child |
| barn | children |
| barnet | The child |
| barnen | The children |
| mus | mouse |
| möss | mice |
| musen | The mouse |
| mössen | The mice |
Possessive Form
The possessive form or genitive case is similar to English, except no apostrophe is used.