Professional Documents
Culture Documents
och definitiv
Och enkla butiksfraser
Nouns - Substantiv
Divided into groups depending on plural conjugation:
Definitive
All groups conjugate definitive singular following the same rule. The suffix is –(e)n for en-words and –(e)t for ett-words. If the noun
already ends with a vowel, you only add –n or –t respectively.
Exceptions
There are some exceptions to this last rule, the most notable of which can be categorized as –t (neutrum) words that end with the
morpheme –eri or –ori. These words usually have French roots. Example:
All nouns in this group have the gender ”en” and end with the letter ”a”. When conjugated to plural, the ”a” is substituted by –or.
En skola Två skolor
These nouns have the additional suffix –na if conjugated to definitive in addition to plural. Reference:
There are some exceptions that belong to this group, but they are not many. One such example is ”Ros”.
En tavla
En blomma
En penna
Obestämd singular Bestämd singular Obestämd plural Bestämd plural
En kvinna
En skola
En klocka
En lampa
En karta
En agenda
En matta
En soffa
En kaka
En flicka
En tröja
En väska
En jacka
En mössa
En paprika
En flaska
En strumpa
En sko*
Grupp 2 – (AR)
Key: -en words ending with a variety of morphemes such as ”ing”, ”dom”, ”el”, ”er”, ”pp”, ”ppe”. Most en-words that are monosyllabic belong to this group. ”Bil”, ”stol”,
”fru”, ”bro”.
This group is very wide, and includes only nouns of the gender utrum (en-words). Due to the variety of noun endings in Swedish compared to romance languages, where most
words end with ”o”, ”a”, ”e” , ”ion” or ”ia”, it can be comparatively difficult to place nouns into this group intuitively and on the fly. Best is to learn it as part of the word.
Importantly, nouns ending with ”e” or ”o” lose that vowel in plural in this group, and nouns ending with ”el” lose the ”e” before the ”l”.
Spegel Speg(-e)lar. Nouns that end with an unemphasized –e, -el, -en, -er or –on all belong to this group.
That said, nouns ending with ”ing” are extremely common in Swedish, and all belong to this group. Example:
Like group 1, these nouns have the additional suffix –na if conjugated to definitive in addition to plural. Reference:
En fågel
En pojke
Obestämd singular Bestämd singular Obestämd plural Bestämd plural
En vägg
En väg
En bil
En fjäril
En kopp
En stol
En båt
En hund
En övning
En pärm
En dörr
En räkning
En kniv
En gaffel
En pojke
En kväll
En påse
En vinter
Grupp 3 – (ER)
Key: mostly -en words ending with a variety of morphemes such as ”het”, ”else”, ”ion”, ”när”, ”tär”. As well as –ett words ending with ”um, ”eri, ”ori”.
This group contains a mix of both genders of nouns. Notably, some words in this group have what’s called ”omljud”, where nouns shift sounds in plural. Like the
previous group, it is quite wide, but incluedes the very common nouns ending with ”het” and ”ion”. Example:
Most nouns in group 3 are loan words from other languages, and most of them are multisyllabic with an emphasis on the last syllable. Very few nouns in this gruop end
with a vowel, and those that do receive only –r in plural. Example: En tå Två tår. This also applies to nouns ending with –else.
Like group 1 and 2, these nouns have the additional suffix –na if conjugated to definitive in addition to plural. Reference:
En maskin
Obestämd singular Bestämd singular Obestämd plural Bestämd plural
En tabell
En journalist
En cigarrett
En telefon
En butik
En student
En film
En servitör/servitris
En text
En växt
Omljud:
En hand
En fot
En tand
En bok
Grupp 4 – (N)
Key: only ett-words ending with a vowel (a, e, i, y, o, u, ä, å, ö)
This group is a lot simpler to remember. It contains all ”ett” words that end with a vowel. There are some exceptions, but they are rare
and few between so you can follow this rule pretty consistently.
In group 1-3 the plural definitive suffix was ”na”, and this group is similar. Since the suffix for plural is already ”n” for this group, the
definitive marker is just ”a” to make ”na” together. Effectively, this looks the same as the other groups.
Ett hjärta
Ett piano
Ett foto
Obestämd singular Bestämd singular Obestämd plural Bestämd plural
Ett piano
Ett foto
Ett frimärke
Ett arbete
Ett konto
Ett meddelande
Ett ansikte
Ett schema
Ett suddgummi
Ett häfte
Ett snöre
Ett minne
Ett bi
Ett erbjudande
Ett område
Grupp 5 – (-)
Key: mostly ett-words ending with a consonant (b, k, l, s, m, n, etc.) as well as en-words ending with –are, –er and –ande (when the noun
is animate, like professions, or –are references a machine)
This group is quite simple. Is the word an ett-word? Does it end with a consonant? It probably belongs here. The caveat of some en-
words belonging here is also a pretty simple rule. Verbs that are converted to nouns
(Pensar El pensador) receive the suffix –are, –er or –ande in Swedish. These all belong to this group, and need no conjugation for
plural. This group has some ”omljud” in definitive.
When it comes to the plural definitive, it has two forms due to containing two genders in the group. For en-words, the plural definitive is
marked by replacing the vowel at the end if there is one with ”na”. For ett-words you simply add ”en”.
Ett hus
Ett barn
Obestämd singular Bestämd singular Obestämd plural Bestämd plural
Ett rum
Ett system
Ett tak
Ett golv
Ett brev
Ett paket
Ett jobb
Ett år
Ett nummer
Ett torg
Omljud i definitiv:
Ett exempel (elle)
Ett fönster (erre)
Ett rum (mmm)