Swedish alphabet, å/ä/ö vowels, sj/tj sounds, pitch accent
Can recognize Swedish sounds including å/ä/ö and sj-sound
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Jag bor i en stor stad vid sjön.
I live in a big city by the lake.
Tjugo flickor läser böcker på svenska.
Twenty girls read books in Swedish.
Vill du ha en kopp kaffe, tack?
Would you like a cup of coffee, please?
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Swedish has 29 letters including å, ä, ö. Key sounds: sj [ɧ], tj [ɕ], vowel length, pitch accent.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesCannot produce the sj-sound [ɧ]
Round your lips and push air through a narrow gap. Practice: sjö, skjorta, sju.
Confusing short/long vowels
Double consonant after = short vowel (katt). Single consonant = long vowel (kat is not a word, but mat has long a).
Jag bor i en stor stad vid sjön.
I live in a big city by the lake.
The 'sj' in sjön is the unique Swedish sj-sound [ɧ]. 'å' in stor is long [oː]. 'ö' in sjön is [øː].
Tjugo flickor läser böcker på svenska.
Twenty girls read books in Swedish.
'Tj' in tjugo = soft [ɕ] sound. 'ä' in läser is long [ɛː]. 'ö' in böcker is short [œ].
Vill du ha en kopp kaffe, tack?
Would you like a cup of coffee, please?
Double consonants (kopp, kaffe) signal a short preceding vowel. 'Tack' = thanks/please.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises