Learn Swedish A1 Personal Pronouns & Verb conjugation! While, Swedish A1 course is basic Swedish course, which is aimed at beginners and learners seeking to improve their skills in Swedish. Every week, there would be free lessons for Swedish A1 on this platform, After working systematically through the lessons, the user should be able to read, write and understand Swedish, and, with a little practice and confidence, hold a simple conversation in Swedish.
While, English and Swedish are cousin languages; Check here Similarities between English & Swedish!
Table of Contents
Personal pronouns
The person that performs an action denoted by a verb can be shown by words like I, you, he, and she. These words are examples of what are called personal pronouns (personliga pronomen). They say which person performs the action. In Swedish the verb does not change its form according to the person, so, as in English, you must always use a personal pronoun with a verb, unless there is a noun that stands as the subject and shows who performs the action.
| Swedish | English |
|---|---|
| Jag | I |
| Du | You |
| Han | He |
| Hon | She |
| den | it (en words) |
| det | it (ett words) |
| Vi | We |
| Ni | You |
| De | They |
The pronoun du ‘you’ is nearly always used when you speak to one person, even if you do not know him or her. The pronoun ni ‘you’ can be used as a polite form of address to one person, but it is not very common to do so nowadays in Swedish. Ni is always used, however, when you speak to more than one person.
As in English, the pronouns han ‘he’ and hon ‘she’ are only used about people (or animals that are thought of as being more or less human). For animals and things den ‘it’ and det ‘it’ are used. Den is used about things which are en words and det is used about things which are ett words. While, Swedish A Lesson 3 has explained the en words & ett words in details!
The pronoun de ‘they’ corresponds in the plural to all the following pronouns: han ‘he’, hon ‘she’, den ‘it’, and det ‘it’.
Form basic sentences
When you make a sentence in Swedish, as in English, you normally have the word order SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT. Don’t use a different word order until you have learnt the rule that says you may do so.
These are key phrases for day to day use! There is no continues tense in Swedish language.
Jag är en pojke. (I am a boy.)
Han är en man. (He is a man.)
Hon är en flicka. (She is a girl.)
Du dricker vatten. (You are drinking water.)
Jag äter bröd. (I am eating bread.)
Some verbs only have a subject and no object. So, Here are key phrases when you talk about things you do!
Vi läser. (We are reading.)
De dricker. (They are drinking.)
Jag kommer. (I am comming.)
Vi äter. (We are eating.)
While, Here are key phrases to talk about food!
Jag äter kyckling. (I am eating chicken.)
Jag äter lunch. (I am eating lunch.)
Barnet äter frukt. (The child is eating fruit.)
Jag älskar glass. (I love ice cream.)
Kvinnan äter fläskkött. (The woman eats pork.)
Subject-verb constraint
In Swedish, as in English, all clauses must contain a subject and a verb. This rule is called the subject-verb constraint!
In Swedish there is also, just as in English, an ‘empty’ subject which does not refer to anything particular. It is the pronoun det ‘it’ which is, for example, used before verbs that describe the weather:
Det regnar. (It is raining.)
Det snöar. (It is snowing.)
Det blåser. (It is windy.)
Det är kallt ute. (It is cold out.)
Det är varmt inne. (It is warm indoors.)
As det ‘it’ does not refer to anything particular, it is called the formal subject (formellt subjekt).
Learn Swedish A1 Greetings & Introductions Lesson 1
Verb conjugation
A verb expresses an action or a state of being. Swedish verbs only inflect for different tenses, and as such have four different forms: the infinitive form (the base form), the present tense, the past tense and the past participle form.
Swedish verbs are divided into four conjugation categories:
Group 1
Most Swedish verbs belong into this group. All of them end with the letter a in their base form. The present tense ends with –ar and the past tense ends with -ade.
| infinitive | present | past | past participle |
| titta | tittar | tittade | tittat |
| prata | pratar | pratade | pratat |
| tala | talar | talade | talat |
Group 2
The present tense ends with -er and the past tense ends with either -de or -te. The ending of the past tense is -te only when the stem of the verb ends with one of the following letters: k, p, t, s, x. The stem of the verb can be revealed by removing the -er ending from the present tense form.
| infinitive | present | past | past participle |
| stänga | stänger | stängde | stängt |
| ställa | ställer | ställde | ställt |
| söka | söker | sökte | sökt |
| läsa | läser | läste | läst |
Group 3
This group consists of verbs containing only one syllable and of verbs that have been derived from verbs containing only one syllable. The present tense ending is -r and the past tense ending is -dde.
| infinitive | present | past | past participle |
| bo | bor | bodde | bott |
| nå | når | nådde | nått |
| bero | beror | berodde | berott |
Group 4 (strong and irregular verbs)
Strong verbs and irregular verbs are often placed in the same category. They have no uniform conjugation system, and so the forms have to be learned separately for each verb.
| infinitive | present | past | past participle |
| skriva | skriver | skrev | skrivit |
| hinna | hinner | hann | hunnit |
| vilja | vill | ville | velat |
| ge | ger | gav | gett |
Grattis! (Congratulations!) So, You’re now prepared to tackle personal pronouns, verb conjugation & basic sentence structure in Swedish language.
Learn Swedish A1-level Lesson 2
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