Essential Swedish Grammar

Julian Granberry

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486269535
• eBook ISBN: 9780486116280
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Designed for those with limited learning time, this book is not a condensed outline of all aspects of Swedish grammar. Rather, it focuses on simple everyday communication, helping students use previously learned phrases and vocabulary more effectively and with great versatility.
After introductory discussions of vocabulary building, word order and the formation of negative sentences and questions, the author offers concise, easy-to-follow coverage of the parts of speech. Numerous examples are included to demonstrate each rule of grammatical usage with the emphasis throughout on simple constructions rather than complicated ones. A selection of useful expressions and a glossary of grammatical terms round out this excellent, inexpensive guide, perfect for self-study or as an adjunct to a language course.
Whether you are just beginning the study of Swedish or wish to review the fundamentals, Essential Swedish Grammar enables you to learn in a systematic way, at your own rate, guided by your own requirements and interests.

NOUNS AND ARTICLES

Gender and the Indefinite Article

All nouns in Swedish are either common or neuter in gender. The indefinite article (English “a” or “an”) has two forms, corresponding to these two noun genders. The common form of the indefinite article is en; the neuter form is ett. The best way to remember the gender of a noun is to memorize the appropriate indefinite article with it. Furthermore, although there are no hard and fast rules by which to determine noun gender according to meaning or form, there are some helpful correspondences between them.

Common Nouns

About three-quarters of all Swedish nouns are common in gender. To this category belong:

1. Most nouns denoting living things:

en man (a man)	en hund (a dog)
en kvinna (a woman)	en fisk (a fish)
en pojke (a boy)	en ek (an oak)

2. Nouns denoting seasons and festivals:

vår (spring)	vinter (winter)
sommar (summer)	jul (Christmas)
höst (autumn)	påsk (Easter)

3. Nouns ending in -ad, -are, -dom, -het, -ing, -ion or -lek:

en månad (a month)	en inbjudning (an invitation)
en läkare (a doctor)	en diskussion (a discussion)
en sjukdom (an illness)	en storlek (a size)
en nyhet (a novelty)

Notice, however, that some nouns that might be expected to be common in gender, since they refer to living things, are in fact neuter (e.g., ett barn, a child, ett bi, a bee, ett lejon, a lion, ett träd, a tree).

Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns include:

1. The names of most inanimate things:

ett hus (a house)	ett tak (a roof)
ett tecken (a sign)	ett segl (a sail)
ett fönster (a window)	ett bibliotek (a library)

2. Nouns ending in -em, -iv, -eum or -ium:

ett problem (a problem)	ett museum (a museum)
ett motiv (a motive)	ett laboratorium (a laboratory)

3. The names of countries, mountains, towns and the letters of the alphabet:

Sverige (Sweden)	Drottningholm
Stockholm	Europa (Europe)

Noun Declensions

There are five noun declensions (ways to form the indefinite plural of nouns) in Swedish.

First Declension

Approximately 10% of all Swedish nouns belong to the first declension. They are all common nouns, and the majority end in -a in the singular, which is dropped before the plural ending -or:

SINGULAR	PLURAL
en blomma (a flower)	blommor (flowers)
en hylla (a shelf)	hyllor (shelves)
en flicka (a girl)	flickor (girls)

A few first declension nouns end in a consonant:

SINGULAR	PLURAL
en ros (a rose)	rosor (roses)
en våg (a wave)	vågor (waves)
en svan (a swan)	svanor (swans)

Second Declension

Second declension nouns account for almost 40% of all Swedish nouns. With the exce...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• SUGGESTIONS FOR VOCABULARY BUILDING
• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
• PRONUNCIATION
• WORD ORDER
• HOW TO FORM QUESTIONS
• NEGATION
• NOUNS AND ARTICLES
• ADJECTIVES
• ADVERBS
• PRONOUNS
• PREPOSITIONS
• CONJUNCTIONS
• VERBS
• TELLING TIME
• USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
• A GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS
• INDEX
• A CATALOG OF SELECTED DOVER BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS OF INTEREST