Alphabet

There are 29 letters in Swedish alphabet. 26 of them are the same as in English, with three additional letters: å, ä, ö.

Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll	Mm	Nn	Oo
Pp	Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz	Åå	Ää	Öö

Vowels

The pronunciation of the vowels depends on whether the vowel is long or short. It depends how many consonants follow after the vowel - if there is no or one consonant, the vowel is long; if there are two or more consonants, the vowel is short.

Vowel	Long	Short
e	Resembles the English ‘fear’ resa (to travel), tre (three)	Resembles the English ‘effect’ ett (one), svenska (Swedish)
i	Resembles the English ‘see’ bi (bee), vi (we)	Resembles the English ‘it’ till (to), innan (before)
y	This is a sound not found in English. The sound is made by forming your mouth as to say ‘u’ but saying ‘ee’ fyra (four), ny (new)	Also not found in English. Pronounce as in ‘it’ but with slightly rounded lips lyssna (to listen), rygg (back)
ä	Like e, the long vowel resembles the English ‘ever’ väg (road), äta (to eat)	Resembles the English ‘get’ bäst (best), vägg (wall)
ö	Resembles the English ‘sir’ with a less articulated r at the end snö (snow), ö (island)	Same as the long one, just shorter höst (autumn), öppen (open)
a	Resembles the English ‘father’ bra (good), glas (glass)	Shorter and lower and resembles the English ‘but’ arm (arm), glass (ice cream)
o	Resembles the English ‘balloon’ bok (book), stol (chair)	Resembles the English ‘hop’ klocka (clock), ost (cheese)
u	Resembles the English ‘few’ sur (sour), nu (now)	Resembles the English ‘put’ buss (bus), lunch (lunch)
å	Resembles the English ‘poor’ båt (boat), två (two)	Resembles English ‘got’ gått (gone), ålder (age)

Consonants

The majority of consonants in Swedish are pronounced similarly as in English with a few exceptions.

c	Sounds like k before a, o, u, å, and all consonants: café (café), och (and) Sounds like s before e, i, y, ä, and ö: cirkus (circus), centimeter (centimeter)
g	Sounds like g before a, o, u, å, and all consonants: ganska (quite), gråta (to cry) Sound like y before e, i, y, ä, and ö: ge (to give), gäst (guest)
j	Sounds like y: familj (family), ja (yes)
k	Sounds like k before a, o, u, å, and all consonants: ko (cow), klaga (to complain) Sounds like sh before e, i, y, ä, and ö: kyrka (church), köra (to drive)
l	Similar to English but lighter, and more air escapes faster: ligga (to lie), lång (long)
r	More rolled than the English: radio (radio), resa (to travel)
s	Resembles the English six: skriva (to write), stå (to stand)
v, w	Sounds like v, the w is used mostly in foreign words: vad (what), webbsida (web page)
z	Sounds like s: zebra (zebra), zoo (zoo)

Letter Combinations

sj, skj, stj, sch, ch	Difficult to describe, sound like a rather harsh h. There are Swedish dialects that pronounce it as sh as well: sju (seven), stjärna (star)
sk	Sounds like sk before a, o, u, and å: sko (shoe), skåp (cabinet) Before e, i, y, ä, ö, same case as above. Could be pronounced as sh: skidor (skis), skydd (protection)
kj , tj	Sound like sh: kjol (skirt), tjäna (to earn)
hj, dj, lj, gj	Sound like y: hjälte (hero), djur (animal), gjorde (did)
ng	Always sounds like in sing, and never like in finger: lång (long), många (many)
gn	Sounds like ngn: regna (rain), lugn (calm)
rd	Sounds like d, though the tongue is placed behind the ridge of the mouth: jord (earth), mord (murder)
rg	Sounds like ry: arg (angry), berg (mountain)
rl	Sounds like l, though the tongue is placed behind the ridge of the mouth: farlig (dangerous), Arlanda (Arlanda airport)
rn	Sounds like t, but tongue is placed behind the ridge of the mouth: parti (political party), stort (big)
0	Sounds like n, but the tongue is placed behind the ridge of the mouth: barn (child), stjärna (star)
rs	Sounds like sh but tongue is placed behind the ridge of the mouth: person (person), kors (cross)