Soft and hard vowels in Swedish

So let's continue on with the Swedish alphabet and learning how to pronounce words. So here we're going to look at soft and hard vowels, which are called in Swedish mjuka and hårda, meaning soft vowels and hard vowels. And they produce different sounds depending on where they are in a word. So this is not something you should spend too much time trying to sort of master. It comes usually subconsciously once you've read enough Swedish, you've listened to enough Swedish, you begin to understand how to pronounce a word.

But let's look at an example now. So let's look at the soft vowels. The soft vowels are composed of these: e, i, y, ä, ö. And the hard vowels in Swedish are a, o, u, å. Now let's see this because it's very interesting, depending on where they are positioned with respect to certain letters, they produce different sounds.

And this can be confusing and even daunting, dare I say, in the beginning, but as you progress in your Swedish and as you start to read more and learn more and listen to more Swedish, you'll begin to see the pattern. So it's not necessarily something you should remember like a mnemonic, but it is a useful rule if you're unsure. So let's look at the letter G or g.

Now the letter g is pronounced as such, you know, with a strong g sound before a hard vowel.

So here's a few examples: gata, gott, gul, gåta. So starting again, gata, then gott, followed by gul, and finally gåta. It is pronounced as a j, j before a soft vowel. So let's look at a few examples.

Gissa. Okay, so it's not "gissa", it's not "gissa" with a hard G, but it is a soft, because of the soft vowels. So you read it as "gissa".

The next one: Göteborg. Göteborg, which is of course the second biggest city in Sweden.

Ge. Ge.

And finally, göra. Göra.

Now let's look at the letter K, "kå", which is similarly pronounced as a hard "kå" if it's followed by any of the hard letters, the hard vowels. So what you have is, in the beginning here, kosta. Kosta.

And why it's not pronounced "kosta", we're gonna talk about that later on. Kosta.

Kan. Kan.

Kul. Kul.

And finally, kål. Kål.

So notice the difference between the last two. Sometimes people can confuse the U and the Å. But it's two completely different sounds. So you have "kul", the second last one, "kul". And then the last one, "kål". Kål.

So "kå" is pronounced as a "sh" sound, as if you're shushing someone in the library, "sh". Before a soft vowel. So let's look at a few examples. Kämpa. Kämpa. Köra.

Köra.

Kista.

Kedja. Kedja.

Okay, now let's look at a combination. Now this is a combination of two letters, S and K, and it is pronounced exactly as such, "sk", "sk". Before a hard vowel: sko, sko, ska, ska, skura, skura, skålen, skålen.

Before a soft vowel, it's pronounced as a "ch" sound, "ch". And of course, this is a letter that you're not really using in English, or a sound that you do not really produce in English, but it's not difficult to produce for an English speaker. So it's very similar to when you're sort of collecting, say, saliva and you're trying to spit, you produce this sound: "ch", "ch".

So here you have sken, sken.

And I'm exaggerating, but the actual sound is sken, sken. So it's very soft. It's not as strong as somebody's trying to spit, "ch", right? But it's the same sound, you just need to dial it down a few notches. So the second word: skidor, skidor. You can try the other two and see if you can get them.

Skära, skära.

And finally you have skör, skör.

Okay, so now we have covered most of the alphabet. So here is once again an overview of the alphabet. I'm not gonna read it out, I think you know it by now, but the important thing is to keep in mind the difference between the last vowels: å, å, and then you have ä and ö.

So those are the three last letters: å, ä, ö. These you need to practice and practice, and hopefully at some point you will reach mastery.