jaaa! (if the link isn’t immediately working, it’s cause I need to edit it cause my tumblr is being a piece of shite)
click here for the ultimative lovely masterpost of textbooks
click here for a resources masterpost
click here for some media to improve your swedish
click here through tagged swedish resources I reblogged
and check out @organizedstudy for her videos in swedish + her generally being a super lovely native swedish humanhave fun with your studies! and feel free to message me if you wanna practice swedish together 🙂
💛💛
Tag: swedish
I love that people can’t decide if Swedish has zero, one, two or three cases, it’s so fun.
Nominative: Du gillar ost – You like cheese
Genitive: Din ost – Your cheese
Objective: Osten gillar dig – The cheese likes you
Three cases: Nominative, genitive and objective.
Pro: “osten gillar du” means you like the cheese but with a weird word order, the objective form is important to see who is the object in the sentence
Con: there are only an objective form for the personal pronouns
Two cases: Nominative and genitive
Pro: they have different forms to imply owning something, great, just add an -s on it, the objective form shouldn’t be counted as it’s so unusual
Con: some people think it’s unnecessary to call genitive a case on it’s own because it’s so simple and could be a clitic
One case: Genitive OR Nominative
Pro: the words in nominative shouldn’t be seen as having a case, leaving only the genitive OR the genitive -s is just a clitic to the nominative so everything is just one case
Con: nominative and genitive are definitely two different cases and one isn’t a part of the other
Zero cases: No case
Pro: if the -s form isn’t called a genitive, why make all the other words have a case?
Con: the -s form is a case ??
My favourite Swedish podcasts
Podcasts are personally my absolute #1 learning resource. I do extensive listening (upper intermediate to advanced!) whenever I have to do one of my 20~30-minute walks. My main goal of doing this is to make understanding a foreign language a natural, effortless thing as well as finding holes in my vocabulary. Here is a list of my favourite podcasts in Swedish (that are still actively producing episodes)! I just turn on auto-download in my podcast app and consume them whenever I have time.
(Note: I’m linking to iTunes because it’s the most common way people get podcasts. I personally never use it, so rest assured you can get all of these elsewhere as well.)
- P1 Dokumentär: half- to one-hour audio documentaries about social issues or personal stories / struggles in Sweden. Usually in the very standard “P1 Swedish”. Comes out irregularly but very frequently.
- P3 Dokumentär: pretty much the same thing. I actually don’t know the difference between the nature of the two documentaries – I think this one is more current affairs-ish? Comes out weekly on Sundays.
- Historiepodden: a long-running podcast with two dudes randomly chatting about historical and sometimes contemporary themes. Probably a good idea only if you’re interested in history – but ‘history’ here refers to a really wide range of events from ancient to recent history. One of them speaks in some sort of southern accent, which is good for training. Comes out weekly on Sundays, can be up to 1.5 hours long.
- Allt du velat veta: as the name implies, it’s an hour-long podcast where experts in different fields teach you about really random topics from science to politics to Sherlock Holmes. As of the time of writing I’ve actually just discovered it through the latest episode about conlangs (of course), so I can’t make too much comments yet. Comes out weekly on Tuesdays.
- Den svenska musikhistorien: my favourite, even though I just started listening! (What can I say, I’m a music student.) It’s relatively new podcast, each episode less than half an hour long, that discusses, well, Swedish music. It goes all the way from the Middle Ages to folk and pop; it’s currently still stuck in the 1800s though, having already surpassed the total planned number of episodes. Comes out mostly weekly on Wednesdays.
- Fredagspodden: guilty pleasure?! I don’t even know why I used to listen to this myself – it’s simply girl’s chat for an hour, and I’m a dude…I was probably just looking for something that’s regularly released to listen to and couldn’t find anything better…anyway it’s released weekly on Fridays (as the name implies).
That’s it for now. I’ll update this if I find any gems, even though I think I’ve looked through many different podcasts. Or if you have a favourite, tell me as well! Happy listening and happy learning!
some of my fav swedish idioms literally translated to english
- Walking like cats around hot porrige
- Give the iron
- Sensing owls in the moss
- That’s the dot over “i”
- Feel python
- That old man does not walk
- Nail sober
some more:
- Now there will be other buns
- He has put his last potato
- Now you’ve crapped in the blue
cabinet
- It fell on the lip
Would you please also post them in Swedish as well as what they refer to? I can figure some on my own and I’ve heard the blue cabinet before but I’d love to have them all neatly in a post! Tack så mycket
- Walking like cats around hot porrige (Går som katter kring het gröt) – Basically the same as “beating around the bush” in English.
- Give the iron (Ge järnet) – To give something all you’ve got, to go all in.
- Sensing owls in the moss ([Jag] Anar ugglor i mossen) – To sense that something isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
- That’s the dot over “i” (Det är pricken över “i”) – Basically the same as “that’s the icing on the cake” in English.
- Feel python (Må pyton) – To feel really sick, to feel really bad.
- That old man does not walk (Den gubben går inte) – “That won’t work”, “you can’t fool me”.
- Nail sober (Spiknykter) – Completely sober.
- Now there will be other buns (Nu blir det andra bullar) – Basically saying “things will be different from now on”, in the sense that there will be more hard work / stricter rules than before from now on.
- He has put his last potato (Han har satt sin sista potatis) – Basically “he has used up his last chance”. Something that can be said when someone gets caught stealing and won’t be forgiven for it, for example.
- Now you’ve crapped in the blue cabinet (Nu har du skitit i det blåa skåpet) – To have majorly fucked something up and gotten caught doing so. To have made a fool of yourself, to have gone too far.
- It fell on the lip (Det föll på läppen) – To have something be liked very much. (”That show I recommended really fell on your lip, huh? You’re basically obsessed with it now.”)
ranking fruit names (swedish)
inspired by @forestlion‘s list in german, i decided to rank the same fruits and berries (plus two i wanted to include that wasn’t included before) by their swedish names!
and just as them, i rank the name not the taste.
äpple (apple): it’s basic, but it pops nicely in your mouth. gets confusing when you compound, is it äppelpaj or äpplepaj? it varies from person to person, i’m not even sure if it’s bound to any dialects. 3/10
päron (pear): this one i really like! a distinct and long ä, a beautiful sound. also a slang for parents. (mina päron – my parents) 6.2/10
persika (peach): this is part of one of my favourite words ever, persikokristall. i really like the flow of this word, and it reminds me of “persian” and things that are persian are very beautiful so, 9/10
banan (banana): it’s quite boring. but if you pronounce it with a different intonation (bAnan instead of banAn) it means “the lane” so 2/10 for multi use of word.
jordgubbe (strawberry): jord means earth or soil. gubbe means man, or more specifically old man. an old earth man? hOW is this related to a berry?? did we think the berry looked like a wrinkly old man? 0.3/10 for being confusing and dirty from soil
smultron (wild strawberry): i lOVE this!! it’s so cute! just like the berry itself, so tiny and a lil chubby. 10/10
vinbär (currant): vin means wine. this is not the berry you make wine from. sounds pretty though. 2/10 for not making sense
plommon (plum): i really like words with double m’s in them. the pronounciation of the o’s here however can be confusing. 7/10
dadel (date): a word that devides the population. should the a be long or short? short a seems to be the most popular, but according to logic and pronounciation rules it should be long. 1/10 for making people fight
hallon (raspberry): yes. good. very good. you’re able to make puns from it by changing emphasis from the a to the o, it will sound like hallå (hello). 8.6/10
ananas (pineapple): when i was like 14 a classmate got embarrassed in english class because a guy asked her “so, is it pronounced like Ananas or anAnas?” “uhhh, Ananas?” “no, it’s pineapple”. 5/10 for being so easy to translate to so many languages – except like english and spanish and probably a couple more
vindruva (grape): now THIS is what you make wine from! but usually we actually drop the vin part and often say just druva. especially in compound words; druvjuice. 9.2/10 for being cool as heck and easy to understand even when a part of it i dropped
lime (lime): well it sounds nice but it’s so boring, we just use the english word? why couldn’t we make up our own? 4/10
citron (lemon): i love when we use c for an s-sounds in swedish. it’s such a beautiful letter. adds fanciness to a word. 7.7/10
apelsin (orange): so appearantly this means apple from china? i had no idea. i love that we don’t just call it the colour orange though. and it’s a beautiful word in itself. 9/10
björnbär (blackberry): bear berry! i don’t know where the connection to bears comes from, but i love it. also love that there’s both an ä and ö in the name. 8.5/10
mandarin (tangerine, mandarine): the exact same name as the chinese language. can be confusing, idk. a nice word though, a nice flow. 6/10
krusbär (gooseberry): krus means either jar/stonkard, or ripple (like on the water surface). i imagine the ripple feeling is what you get when you eat it? i mean that’s kinda how i feel at least. or it’s just placebo because of my association. in any case, 5.2/10
körsbär (cherry): now this one!! what a wicked name this is! again, both an ä and an ö! and TWO sh-sounds! but they’re spelled differently! k and rs. i think it’s super cool. 10/10
hjortron (cloudberry): hjort means deer. both the animal and the berry come from the north, i like that connection. name is just as unusual and unique as the berry. 9.6/10

Identifying as nonbinary can be difficult when learning languages, but Sweden has an ‘official’ gender neutral pronoun: hen. I did some research on it and got some notes from natives that I thought I’d share!
As I’ve mentioned, “hen” is the Swedish neutral pronoun, very similar to the use of singular “they” in English.
It took inspiration from the neutral pronoun of Finland (hän) and after much debate “hen” was adopted.
Its use is:
– for talking about someone who’s gender is unknown
– for talking about someone who identifies as neither male nor female
– when the gender is unnecessary in the conversationIt’s been used in various places in Sweden, some say since the 60s, but was in mainstream media in 2013 and placed into the official Swedish dictionary in 2015.
It has two main uses in Sweden. The first is, obviously, for LGBT+ groups but the second is interesting. Some schools or nurseries have started using “hen” for their pupils so as not to push gender roles or identities on their students.
Its use is the same as han or hon
e.g. hen är vacker – they are beautiful
Emotions in Swedish
Since I got a request to to a vocab list for emotions/feelings etc. in Swedish, here it is, and I hope it’s what you were after 🙂
Jag mår bra/dåligt-I feel good/bad
Jag mår illa-I feel nauseous
Jag känner mig-I feel
Jag är-I amTrött-Tired
Sömnig-Sleepy
Utmattad-Exhausted
Lättad-Relieved
Arg-Angry
På dåligt humör-In a bad mood
På bra humör-In a good mood
Glad-Happy
Uttråkad-Bored
Orolig-Worried
Irriterad-Irritated
Spänd-Tense
Nervös-Nervous
Ängslig-Anxious
Besviken-Disappointed
Upphetsad/exalterad-Excited
Förvirrad-Confused
Fundersam-Thoughtful
Förvånad-Surprised
Upprörd-Upset
Frustrerad-Frustrated
Förtjust-Delighted
Nyfiken-CuriousWorth noting, thoughtful can also mean omtänksam (thoughtful as in caring) And surprised can also be överraskad. Surprise!-Överraskning!
Other feeling-words, that don’t work with Jag är/jag känner mig-sentences (some work if they are in another form, ex. Rädsla->Rädd):
Beundra-Admire
Fientlig-Hostile
Glädje-Joy
Medkänsla-Compassion
Pinsam-Embarrassing
Skräck-Horror
Rädsla-Fear
Skam-Shame
Ånger-Regret
Vemod-Feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time (like if a child moves away from home the parent can feel vemod)
Swedish
Just like my other lists with pdf and audio, here’s the folder. Inside you will see another 6 folders which have inside:
1. Courses for Beginners
01.Teach Yourself Speak Swedish with Confidence Audio
01.Teach Yourself Speak Swedish with Confidence Booklet
01.Teach Yourself Speak Swedish with Confidence
02.Teach Yourself Swedish Audio
02.Teach Yourself Swedish
03.Colloquial Swedish 1996
03.Colloquial Swedish 2007
03.Colloquial Swedish Audio
03.Colloquial Swedish
04.Nya mål 1 Audio
04.Nya mål 1 Lärobok
04.Nya mål 1 Övningsbok
05.Mål 1 Audio
05.Mål 1
06.Facit till På svenska! Övningsbok
06.På svenska Horforstaelse
06.På svenska Uttal
06.På svenska! Audio
06.På svenska! Lärobok
06.På svenska! Övningsbok
06.På svenska! Studiehäfte (ryska)
07.Svenska Utifrån Audio
07.Svenska Utifrån Uttalsanvisningar
07.Svenska Utifrån
08.Schwedisch Lehrbuch – Hueber
09.Berlitz. Шведский язык. Базовый курс Audio
09.Berlitz. Шведский язык. Базовый курс
10.Facit till Svenska för Utländska Studenter
10.Svenska för Utländska Studenter Audio
10.Svenska för Utländska Studenter
11.Шведский без репетитора
12.Учебник шведского языка Audio
12.Учебник шведского языка
13.Facit Övningsbok
13.Facit Textbok
13.Hörförståelse
13.Rivstart A1+A2 Audio
13.Rivstart A1+A2 Övningsbok
13.Rivstart A1+A2 Textbok
14.Шведский язык. Самоучитель для начинающих Audio
14.Шведский язык. Самоучитель для начинающих
15.Шведский язык Практический курс Audio
15.Шведский язык Практический курс
16.Swedish Basic Course – FSI Audio
16.Swedish Basic Course – FSI
17.Современный шведский язык Базовый курс Audio
17.Современный шведский язык Базовый курс Exercises Audio
18.Langenscheidts Praktischer Sprachlehrgang Schwedisch Audio
19.Swedish in Three Months
20.Swedish Compact Audio (pimsleur)
20.Swedish Compact Booklet (pimsleur)
21.Beginner’s SwedishI’ll add here a “read more” line since if i don’t, it will make others’ dashboards annoying. (i feel the need to say this because these lines don’t appear on phones usually so just for you to know, there’s more in this post than what i’ve written above).

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