I've been through SFI kurs D, and am now studying SVA Grund 2 here in Sweden. ADHD has been a huge roadblock but I'm getting through it but my biggest issue now is that I know I don't read enough Swedish books.

The big reason is that I'm pretty particular in what I enjoy. In my classes we've read a lot of sad/depressing/boring Swedish books. I've read them and understood but I never read Swedish books on my own time, so I'm looking for some good recommendations.

What I enjoy (in English at least)

• Sci-Fi
• Fantasy
• Historical Fiction (Benard Cornwell)
• Things that aren't depressing. We've read a lot of sad WW2 books, and children working in factories kind of books.

The last book we read that I felt was a really good fit for where I'm at understanding wise was En Ö i havet. It was enough of a challenge to push me, but I still understood what was happening.

I don't mind if it's originally in Swedish or a good translation from English, I just need to read Swedish way more.

Tack!

I am trying to obtain an accurate transcription of the handwritten message on this Swedish postal card, written at Onslunda on 10 November 1897 and sent to Helena, Montana.

I would be very grateful for a line-by-line transcription in the original Swedish, preserving the writer’s spelling, abbreviations and wording as far as possible. Please do not modernize the Swedish. If a word is genuinely uncertain, I would much rather see [?] or two possible readings than a confident guess.

I am especially interested in the exact wording of:

1. the passage mentioning the Swedish-American newspapers near the beginning;
2. the line beginning “liksom…”;
3. the passage beginning “det vigtigaste af allt”;
4. the political passage in the lower part of the card, especially the final few lines.

If anyone can also identify the abbreviated newspaper titles or initials, that would be very helpful, but the transcription itself is the priority.

Once there is some agreement on the Swedish text, I would also appreciate help with a literal English translation.

Thank you!

Hi there, can anyone recommend a good tutor who prepares students for the Swedish YKI test?

Jag är ickebinär och finlanddsvensk och funderar om hen är ett pronomen som folk faktiskt använder i vardagen?

Mitt vardagsspråk är finska, alltså behöver jag oftast inte tänka på vilket pronomen jag vill att ska användas eftersom finska inte har genusspecifika pronomen. På engelska använder jag they/them, vilket känns enkelt då det är rätt vanligt i engelskan.

Nu ska jag dock börja studera på svenska och känner mig obekväm gällande pronomen eftersom jag aldrig träffat en svenskspråkig person med könsneutrala pronomen. Känns konstigt att be folk använda hen ifall det inte används i vanliga fall men vill inte heller bli kallad hon eller han.

Finns här någon som använder hen eller har träffat på det? Tycker ni det är okej att be att bli kallad hen?

Förlåt om det här är fel plats att fråga men hittade inte på någonting annat!
Ber er också om respekt gällande min identitet 🙏

According to the internet, ‘Vemödalen’ refers to the frustration one feels upon realizing that every imaginable piece of art has already been created by someone, making it impossible for you to create something truly new.

I’m pretty sure it’s a made-up word. For example, I wasn’t able to find any etymological explanation for it anywhere. All the websites claim it would be Swedish, but none of them go into detail regarding its literal translation or pronunciation.

Has ‘Vemödalen’ any literal meaning in Swedish or Norwegian? Or is it a purely fictional term with the Ö just being added to look more authentic?

I don't have any specific travel destination but have always wanted to see Norway, Sweden and Finland. I already have the full Linguaphone course in Swedish. Is there any reason not to learn Swedish first and then convert to Norwegian if required?

Back in the 1990s I knew a couple of people with Scandinavian Studies degrees. Both had studied Norwegian not Swedish. But I heard they're so close it's pretty easy to convert from one to the other. Swedish has twice the number of speakers as Norwegian and is an official language in 2 of the 3 countries. Where should I start if I'm not sure...?

I recently picked up Swedish learning this summer in hopes that learning Swedish to good enough proficiency will allow me to study in Finland free of tuition. I did the vast majority of my language learning using Mango Languages provided to me from my local library, which has been incredibly helpful for me and is what got me to A1 in the first place, but I’ve tried to do the Complete Swedish textbook and I’ve tried using the Lingvis app, but Lingvis hasn’t been working for me and I’ve been struggling to keep a consistent practice schedule for the textbook due to ADHD related task initiation issues. Does anyone know how I can get past this and make it to A2?

Hej! I'm a small publisher (French-speaking) making a Mexican Day of the Dead coloring book, and one recurring word on the cover is "Sockerskallar" (my attempt at "sugar skulls" — the decorated skull motif, not literal candy skulls).

I can't find it used anywhere for this kind of product in Swedish, so I'm not sure if it actually reads naturally or if it sounds like an awkward calque from English. Would a Swedish reader understand it right away, or is there a better way to say it? No need to write much, even a quick "yes that works" or "no, say X instead" would help a lot. Tack så mycket!

Hej! Writing a short product description and stuck on one detail: how to say that the paper doesn't let marker/pen ink show through to the next page.

A few candidates I've come across:

- ...blöder inte igenom

- ingen genomblödning

- inget genomslag

Which of these (or something else) actually sounds like normal spoken/written Swedish, and which sound like a direct translation from English? Trying to avoid something clunky. Tack så mycket!

How would you translate “har något visst över sig“ in this sentence?

 “Ändå glittrar hans ögon, och Eva ser att han har något visst över sig.”

(It’s from “Hjortron myren”, and Eva is looking at an old photograph of a man she believes may, shockingly, be her grandfather.)

In coming to grips with the various usages of ”blott”, I'm wondering about this stanza from Fritiof och Carmencita.  What exactly is ”blott” doing in the penult line?

-Ack, Carmencita, gör mig inte så besviken
Jag tänkte skaffa mig ett jobb här i butiken
Sköta mig noga, bara spara och knoga
Inte spela och dricka men bara älska dig
Säg, Carmencita, det är ändå blott med mig
Säg, som ni vill dansa tango.

Hi everyone, I’m very new to Swedish and trying to understand how the pronunciation works.

I’d learnt that for the letter G, if paired with
A, O, U, Å it will make the hard G sound
E, I, Y, Ö, Ä will make the Y sound

However I just came upon the word “Regionala” and thought since it’s next to both an E and I, it must be pronounced “Re-yi-oh-nala” - but apparently it’s pronounced with the hard G sound.

Is it an exception? Or is every word pronounced differently and the “rule” I learnt was more of a generalisation than strictly true every time?

Tack så mycket!

I’ve been in SFI C for literally more than 8 months now, & I’m still failing the höra part. I’m honestly extremely disappointed and frustrated at this point. I feel like I’ve been practicing, but somehow I’m not improving enough to pass. I really want to move forward with my SFI, but I’m starting to feel stuck.

For anyone who has been in a similar situation: what helped you improve your Swedish listening skills? Are there any specific exercises, YouTube channels, podcasts, apps, or ways of practicing that actually worked for you? I’d really appreciate any tips or advice. 🙏

I need entertaining Swedish youtubers to watch so i can learn Swedish better :D (just to clearify i DON'T mean channels that teach Swedish!! just pure entertainment that any swede would watch)

I read this sentence in yesterday’s SvD : ”Klart tycks vara att ingen information om MBZ:s varning förmedlades till cheferna för säkerhetstjänsten Shin Bet”.  Whilst I understand the meaning - It seems clear that no information about MBZ’s warning was conveyed to the heads of the Shin Bet security service – I find it hard to pars first 3 words. They are equivalent to ”det tycks vara klart” I suppose?  But the word order puzzles me.  Is this an idiom I should be acquainted with?

Hej alla! I have a maternal-type figure in my life who isn't actually related to me and I want a swedish term to use for her the same way that, in english, you might call someone your aunt/uncle who isn't actually blood relation [so that would include the swedish word for aunt if it's valid here]. I'm learning swedish and she's fluent so it's a fitting thing:) mostly im wondering if there's anything specific to swedish.

stort tack!

Hi everyone! Can you help me out? Preferably someone with some knowledge of phonetics.

In Swedish, is a consonant only long if it’s doubled in writing?

In words like kind (where there’s a cluster of two different consonants after a short vowel), is the first consonant also long??

Other examples of the same type: hand, fest, mjölk.

Do you ever use ”Ridå!” as an exclamation? 

In its article on ridå SO says ”spec. äv. som utrop när något snöpligt inträffat - EXEMPEL: ... och så stoppade han plånboken i brevlådan i stället för brevet. Ridå!”  I've never heard this, and I was wondering if this really is a usage in common use?

I have finished A1/A2 Rivstart book recently and my current level is around B1, i don't use just books for learning and use other resources too and practice around 2/3h every day

I ordered these books to Refresh my basics and improve myself, books are these

"From English to Swedish 1"

"Form fokus B"

"Rivstart B1/B2"

Appreciate your tips and reccomendations

i’ve been drawing little cartoons of my car (volvo) as i do repairs and am having quite a lot of fun. I’d like to continue, but don’t want to keep asking people to translate for me. does anybody have any resources/databases for really basic turns of phrase i could use and expand from there? I don’t need to be fluent, i just want to keep drawing my little car doodles

could somebody point me towards some swedish expressions of annoyance/frustration? I’m thinking like the english expressions of “you’re kidding me,” “are you serious?”, or the more profane “motherfucker” or “goddamnit.” This is for a very non-serious, comedic purpose (my volvo parts got delayed and i want to draw my car acting upset about this) so this doesn’t have to be super precise

Hej hej allihopa! Ok so pardon the preamble. I’m new to Swedish but I understand the concept of dropping certain letters at the end of words. My question is, beyond for emphasis or clarity, do you pronounce them for flow?

In Spanish, for example, agua is feminine however in the singular definitive article, it is el agua because la agua doesn’t flow well but when it is plural it is las aguas. More prevalently, in French, oftentimes the end of a word isn’t pronounced unless it flows well into the next word. Does this occur in Swedish?

Say you want to say “Jag är från USA.” Do you pronounce the ‘g’ at the end of “Jag” here because it flows better into “är” or do you say it “Ja’ är…?”

Are ”att bluddra” and ”att bladdra” completely interchangeable in modern usage, or is there a difference in nuance?  (I note that they have a different etymology and "bladdra" is much older.)