Swedish Nouns

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 that end in a consonant, append en to the noun. If a common singular noun ends in a vowel, append n to the end of the noun.

For neuter nouns append et to the end of the noun.

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.