En or ett? How to know the gender of Swedish nouns

The short answer

Every Swedish noun is either an en word or an ett word. About three in four nouns are en words, so en is the better guess when you have nothing else to go on. For many nouns there is no rule and you simply learn the article with the word. But a surprising number of nouns carry a clue in their ending, and some of those clues are close to watertight.

This guide lists the patterns that actually hold, says honestly where they leak, and shows what the choice between en and ett changes in the rest of the sentence. If you just want to check a single word, use the en or ett tool.

What en and ett actually are

Grammatically, Swedish has two genders. The one that takes en is called common gender (utrum), and the one that takes ett is neuter (neutrum). Historically Swedish had masculine, feminine and neuter like German. Masculine and feminine merged into common gender, which is why the en group is so much bigger.

Gender has nothing to do with whether the thing is male or female, alive or not. Ett barn (a child) and ett statsråd (a government minister) are neuter. En sten (a stone) is common gender. Treat en and ett as two noun classes, not as a statement about meaning.

The split is roughly:

Counts vary a little depending on whether you count dictionary entries or words in running text, but three quarters is a fair working figure.

Why getting it right matters

Getting the gender wrong rarely causes a misunderstanding. Say "ett bil" and people will know what you mean. But gender does not stay on the article. It decides at least five other things in the sentence:

So a gender mistake produces a small cluster of mistakes, and that is what makes speech sound foreign. The upside: once you know the gender, all of these follow automatically.

Endings that almost always mean en

These are the patterns you can lean on. Most of them are suffixes, meaning an ending that builds a new word. A word that just happens to end in the same letters does not always follow the rule.

The -a exceptions worth knowing

Nouns ending in an unstressed -a are overwhelmingly en words, which is why en feels natural before flicka, gata, lampa, soffa, tavla. But a group of very common ett words also ends in -a, and they come up constantly:

• ett öga (an eye), ett öra (an ear), ett hjärta (a heart)
• ett tema (a theme), ett schema (a schedule), ett drama, ett dilemma

Body parts that end in -a are worth memorising as a set: öga, öra, hjärta.

Endings that usually mean ett

The ett patterns are fewer, and a couple are weaker than textbooks suggest.

The -ande trap

Nouns in -ande and -ende that describe an action, a state or a result are ett words: ett leende (a smile), ett beteende (a behaviour), ett boende (accommodation), ett förhållande (a relationship). But when the same ending describes a person, the word is an en word:

• en studerande (a student), en sökande (an applicant), en resande (a traveller), en ordförande (a chairperson)

So ask yourself: is this a thing or a person?

Why -skap needs checking

Textbooks sometimes list -skap as an ett ending. It is only half true. Compare:

There is a loose tendency, with words for a role or status leaning ett and abstract qualities leaning en, but it is not reliable enough to trust. Look -skap words up.

Compounds take the gender of the last part

This is the most useful rule of all, because Swedish builds so many words by compounding. The gender of a compound almost always comes from its last element. Rare exceptions exist, such as ett ögonblick (a moment), even though blick (a glance) is an en word.

The first part can be anything. Barn is an ett word, but en barnvagn (a pram) is an en word because vagn is. Once you know a few hundred basic nouns, you can predict the gender of thousands of compounds.

Groups of meaning with a tendency

Meaning is a weaker clue than form, but a few groups are consistent enough to help.

• People are usually en: en man, en kvinna, en kompis, en granne (neighbour), en kollega. The main exceptions are ett barn (child), ett syskon (sibling), ett vittne (witness), ett biträde (assistant) and ett statsråd (government minister).
• Letters of the alphabet are ett: ett a, ett ö.
• Numbers used as nouns are en: en etta (a one, also a one-room flat), en tvåa (a two, a one-bedroom flat).
• Names of trees and most plants are en: en ek (oak), en björk (birch), en tall (pine), en ros. The word träd itself is ett, so compounds like ett äppelträd are ett too.

Words where en and ett mean different things

A few nouns exist in both genders with different meanings. They are fun, and they are proof that gender is part of the word, not decoration.

The common ett words you just have to learn

Many of the most frequent ett words are short, old words with no helpful ending. There is no shortcut here: learn them early and they will stop feeling like exceptions.

If you want these in frequency order, the Swedish word lists show the most common nouns with their article.

Definite forms and plurals by gender

Gender decides the definite suffix, and it also leans the plural one way or the other.

A useful regularity: ett words ending in a consonant usually have no plural ending at all (ett hus, två hus; ett barn, två barn), and ett words ending in a vowel take -n (ett äpple, två äpplen). En words spread across -or, -ar and -er. The full plural picture is in the Swedish grammar overview.

Adjective agreement

Adjectives take a -t ending with ett words in the indefinite form, and -a in all definite and plural forms.

The -t also shows up when "it" refers to an ett word: Vad tycker du om huset? – Det är jättefint! ("What do you think of the house? – It's lovely!"). And when you talk about something in general rather than a specific noun, Swedish uses the ett form: Det är kallt ute (It's cold outside).

What to do when you are not sure

1. Learn every noun with its article, from the very first day. Write "en bok", not "bok". Say it that way when you review. This costs nothing and saves years of guessing.
2. Check the ending against the tables above. If it is a compound, check the last part.
3. If you still do not know, say en. Three in four nouns are en words, so it is the statistically safer guess, and any mistake is minor.
4. Look it up when it matters. In writing, check the word in SAOL at svenska.se, the Swedish Academy's word list, or with the en or ett tool.
5. Listen for it. Every time you hear ett or a -t adjective, it is a free gender lesson. Tapping words in a transcript while you watch is one of the fastest ways to absorb genders without drilling them.

FAQ

Is there a rule for en and ett in Swedish?

There is no single rule, but there are reliable patterns. Endings like -ing, -het, -tion and -are almost always mean en, and -um, -eri and -ment almost always mean ett. Compounds take the gender of their last part. For short everyday words without a telling ending, you learn the article with the word.

What percentage of Swedish nouns are en words?

Roughly 75%, depending on how you count. That is why en is the safer guess when you are unsure.

Is it bad to use the wrong gender?

People will understand you. But the gender also controls the definite ending, adjective forms and pronouns, so one wrong gender produces several small mistakes. It is worth getting right, and it gets easier quickly.

Why is it "ett barn" when a child is a person?

Swedish gender is grammatical, not biological. Barn has always been a neuter word, just as Kind is neuter in German. A few other words for people are neuter too, such as ett syskon (a sibling) and ett vittne (a witness).

How do I say "it" in Swedish?

It depends on the noun. Use den for en words and det for ett words: Jag köpte en jacka. Den var billig. (I bought a jacket. It was cheap.) Use det for general statements and situations: Det regnar (It's raining).

Keep going

Gender is one of those things that settles through hearing and saying real sentences, not through lists. Our lessons mark the article on every new noun and bring the words back in speaking practice until the right article comes out on its own. Season 1 of Complete Swedish is free in full, with no account needed: try lesson 1 here. For the rest of the grammar, continue with the Swedish grammar overview.