Alphabet: Introduction and Pronunciation

In this lesson, you will become familiar with the Swedish alphabet and learn how to pronounce each letter correctly. The Swedish alphabet consists of 29 letters, which is the same as the English alphabet plus three additional letters: å, ä, and ö.

Swedish Alphabet

Here is the complete list of letters in the Swedish alphabet:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Å Ä Ö

Pronunciation

To correctly pronounce the Swedish alphabet, it's important to understand the sounds associated with each letter. Below, you will find the English approximations of the Swedish letter sounds.

1. A: Pronounced like the "a" in "father".
2. B: Pronounced like the "b" in "butter".
3. C: Pronounced like the "s" in "sun" before the vowels "a", "o", "u", and "å" (e.g., "car" is pronounced like "sar"), and like the "k" in "kick" before the vowels "e", "i", "y", ä", and "ö" (e.g., "ice" is pronounced like "kick").
4. D: Pronounced like the "d" in "dog".
5. E: Pronounced like the "e" in "end".
6. F: Pronounced like the "f" in "fish".
7. G: Pronounced like the hard "g" in "game" before the vowels "a", "o", "u", and "å" (e.g., "gap" is pronounced like "gap"), and like the "j" in "jump" before the vowels "e", "i", "y", "ä", and "ö" (e.g., "gel" is pronounced like "yel").
8. H: Pronounced like the "h" in "hello".
9. I: Pronounced like the "ee" in "see".
10. J: Pronounced like the "y" in "yes".
11. K: Pronounced like the hard "k" in "kite".
12. L: Pronounced like the "l" in "love".
13. M: Pronounced like the "m" in "mother".
14. N: Pronounced like the "n" in "nice".
15. O: Pronounced like the "oo" in "book".
16. P: Pronounced like the "p" in "pen".
17. Q: Only used in loanwords and pronounced like the "k" in "kick".
18. R: Pronounced by rolling the "r" sound.
19. S: Pronounced like the "s" in "sun".
20. T: Pronounced like the "t" in "top".
21. U: Pronounced like the "oo" in "moon".
22. V: Pronounced like the "v" in "victory".
23. W: Only used in loanwords and pronounced like the "v" in "victory".
24. X: Pronounced like the "x" in "extra".
25. Y: Pronounced like the "oo" in "moon".
26. Z: Pronounced like the "s" in "sun".
27. Å: Pronounced like the "o" in "for".
28. Ä: Pronounced like the "e" in "red".
29. Ö: Pronounced like the "ur" in "fur".

Make sure to practice the pronunciation of each letter to develop a good foundation for the Swedish language.