Is Swedish Difficult to Learn?

Jack Pulman-Slater
Published: 23 January 2025
The Swedish Parliament Building

Swedish-speaking culture has given the world the plays of August Strindberg, the enchanting tales of the Moomins, the provocative films of Ingmar Bergman, the pioneering climate movement of Greta Thunberg and of course the music of ABBA. Beyond Sweden, where over 10 million people speak Swedish, the language is also one of the official languages of Finland and the sole official language of the autonomous archipelago of the Åland Islands. Swedish is also closely related to its Scandinavian neighbours, Norwegian and Danish, making it a key player in the Nordic region. Learning Swedish opens the door to understanding Scandinavian culture, connecting with millions of speakers, and exploring Sweden's rich history and progressive modern society.

Learning a new language is always an adventure, and Swedish is no exception. But just how difficult is it for English speakers?

Linguistic Roots

Swedish is part of the North Germanic branch of the Germanic language family, itself a subgroup of the larger Indo-European family of languages. This makes Swedish a close relative of other Scandinavian languages like Norwegian and Danish, and more distantly related to German, Dutch, English and Scots which belong to the West Germanic branch.
The shared Germanic roots mean Swedish and English have a lot in common, particularly in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure. For instance, words like fot (foot) and vatten (water) bear an obviously resemblance to their English equivalents. This genetic connection provides English speakers with a helpful head start in recognizing patterns and cognates.

European Tree. Image credit: Multiple authors, first version by Mandrak, CC BY-SA 3.0 European Tree. Image credit: Multiple authors, first version by Mandrak, CC BY-SA 3.0
European Tree. Image credit: Multiple authors, first version by Mandrak, CC BY-SA 3.0

What Makes Swedish Easy for English Speakers?

Similar Vocabulary

Due to shared Germanic roots described above and historical borrowings, Swedish and English share many cognates which are words that sound the similar in both languages and have the same meaning. This is true not just of nouns, but also for more grammatical words. For example, du (you), vi (we), här (here), vem (who), vad (what).

Simple Verb Conjugation

If you’ve ever learnt a Latin-based language like French or Spanish, you’ll know that verbs can present a major challenge for learners as each verb changes depending on the subject. In Swedish, however, verbs don’t change in this way and there are even fewer verb conjugations than in English— in fact, there aren’t any at all! For example, see how the verb att vara (to be) stays the same regardless of the subject:

  • Jag är (I am)
  • Du är (You are)
  • Ni är (you (all) are)
  • Vi är (We are) 

Familiar Sentence Structure

Basic Swedish sentences follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, just like English.

Jag åker till London.

I travel to London.

Swedish also forms different tenses by using multiple grammatical words, just like English. In the sentences below, we can create different tenses and moods by changing the grammatical help verbs but keeping the same basic form of the verb TO READ.

I will read the book - Jag ska läsa boken.

I must read the book – Jag borde läsa boken.

I have not read the book - Jag har inte läst boken.

I had not read the book - Jag hade inte läst boken.

This underlying similarity makes constructing basic sentences feel intuitive for English speakers. Instead of a single word conveying lots of information about time and person (as happens in Italian or Portuguese) learners can often rely on their English-language knowledge to provide a basic frame for sentences.

Dining out on a frozen lake, SwedenDining out on a frozen lake, Sweden
Swedish also forms different tenses by using multiple grammatical words, just like English.

What Makes Swedish Challenging?

Pronunciation and Melodic Stress

Many dialects of Swedish have something called pitch-accents, meaning the pitch and melody of a word can change its meaning. While this isn’t as complex a system as we find in languages in languages like Mandarin, the tonal difference can still be daunting. For instance, the word anden can mean “the duck” or “the spirit” depending on how it’s stressed.

Vowel Sounds

Swedish has nine basic vowels, each of which can be pronounced as either short or long. Some sounds, like the rounded vowels ‘ö’ and ‘å,’ don’t have direct equivalents in English, requiring some practice to master.

Grammar Nuances

Although Swedish grammar is relatively straightforward, there are a few nuances that can trip up learners:

  • Nouns: Just like French, nouns in Swedish fall into two different grammatical categories. Instead of feminine and masculine, however, Swedish has common and neuter nouns. For example, en kanelbulle (a cinnamon bun) is a common noun and ett hus (a house) is a neuter noun. Instead of using separate words like “the” or “a,” Swedish attaches definite articles to the end of nouns (e.g., huset for “the house) the words "möten, boken and tågen" all have the same -EN ending but translate as "meetings, the book and the trains"?
  • Word Order in Questions: The placement of the verb in questions (e.g., Var bor du? “Where do you live?”) can take some getting used to.
  • Plural Forms: In English, we often simply add -S to the end of a wors to make it plural. Swedish, however, has multiple ways to form plurals, which can feel unpredictable at first, for example: flickor (girls), bilar (cars), tidningar (newspapers), Katter (cats), barn (child/children), frimärken (stamps).

Final Thoughts

So, is Swedish difficult to learn? The answer depends on your perspective. While there are unique challenges, such as word stress and unfamiliar vowels, the many similarities between Swedish and English—from shared vocabulary to a shared underlying grammar—make it a manageable and rewarding language to tackle. For English speakers, Swedish offers the perfect balance: a challenge that keeps you engaged, paired with familiar elements that make progress tangible.

Learn Swedish at City Lit

Whether you are a complete beginner, a tad rusty or already fluent and want to enjoy Swedish conversation, we offer a range of language courses during the daytime, evening and weekend to meet your needs.


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