Swedish (svenska) is a North Germanic language that evolved from Old Norse in the Scandinavian branch. It is spoken primarily in Sweden, and by Swedish minorities in Finland.
Today, Swedish is spoken by approximately 10 million native speakers[1] and about 10.2 million total speakers worldwide. It is the official language of Sweden and one of the official languages of Finland[2], with language standards maintained by the Svenska Språknämnden (Swedish Language Council)[3].
The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters – 5 basic vowels, 3 special letters (å, ä, ö), and 20 consonants. Swedish has a pitch accent system and relatively straightforward pronunciation rules. The language also features distinctive grammatical structures.
Below is the breakdown of all letters and characters used in Swedish.
The Swedish alphabet has 5 basic vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u. Swedish vowels can be either long or short, and this distinction is important for pronunciation and meaning.
Swedish has 20 consonant letters. Swedish consonant pronunciation is generally consistent, though some combinations create special sounds.
The letter combinations sk, skj, and tj create the characteristic Swedish "sh" sound.
Swedish writing uses punctuation marks and symbols including period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation (!), apostrophe ('), and Swedish quotation marks (" "). The Swedish krona symbol (kr) is also commonly used.
Swedish punctuation follows Scandinavian conventions.
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