Swedish slang: words people actually use

The short answer

The Swedish slang you will hear most often is small and everyday: typ (like, sort of), asså (like, I mean), fett and sjukt (really, super), najs (nice), grym (awesome), keff (bad, lame) and chilla (to chill). In text messages Swedes shorten words hard: aa (yeah), iaf (anyway), ngn (someone), mvh (kind regards). Younger people in big-city suburbs also use words from Turkish, Arabic and other languages, such as guss (girl), len (mate) and para (money), and some of those have spread across the country.

This guide lists the slang that is actually current, says who uses it and how casual it is, and flags the words that sound dated. Each word gets a register label:

A word of advice before the lists: slang is the last thing to get right in a language. A learner who says fett najs with a textbook accent sounds a bit like a teacher trying to be cool. Learn to understand all of it, and use the casual words first. If you are still building the basics, the essential Swedish phrases guide comes first.

Fillers and softeners

These little words are everywhere in spoken Swedish. They carry no real meaning, but leaving them out entirely makes your Swedish sound stiff.

Ba deserves a note. Just as English speakers say "and he was like…", Swedes say och han ba… to introduce what someone said. It is a shortening of bara, and you will hear it in almost every story a young Swede tells.

Typ has gone from a noun (a type, a kind) to the single most common filler among younger speakers. You will hear it several times a sentence: Det var typ hundra personer där, typ.

Intensifiers: very, really, super

Standard Swedish says mycket (very) or jättebra (really good). Slang has a whole toolbox.

Fett means "fat" as a noun, but as slang it is just "very". Sjukt comes from sjuk (ill), and as literally means carrion, which is why as- words sound cruder than jätte- words. Keep the crude prefixes for friends, never for an email to a customer.

Good and bad: saying something is cool

There is no single Swedish word for "cool". People say cool (spelt the English way; do not confuse it with kul, which means fun), or use one of these:

If you want to say "cool!" as a reaction, the most natural options are Najs!, Vad kul! (How fun!), Grymt! or simply Coolt! The dictionary page for grym shows how the word's literal meaning lives on beside the slang one.

Greetings and saying hello in slang

Tjena is your safest slang greeting: it works with friends, colleagues and the person at the gym. In writing you will often see just Kram! (Hug!) at the end of messages between friends, including between adults.

People, money and everyday things

Kille and tjej started as slang and are now simply the normal words for young men and women. Lax (salmon) is usually traced to the salmon-pink thousand-kronor notes of the early 1900s.

Suburban slang (förortssvenska)

In the multilingual suburbs of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, young people developed a way of speaking Swedish that mixes in words from Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Somali, Balkan languages and English, often with a distinct rhythm. Linguist Ulla-Britt Kotsinas called it Rinkebysvenska in the late 1980s, after the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby. Today researchers more often say förortssvenska (suburban Swedish) or multiethnolect. It is a real, rule-governed way of speaking, not "broken Swedish", and many of its speakers switch easily between it and standard Swedish.

Some of its words have spread through music and social media to teenagers everywhere:

Guss is now even listed in SAOL, the Swedish Academy's word list. Jalla has crossed over so completely that Swedes of every background say it to children, dogs and colleagues.

A note on respect. These words belong to communities that have often been mocked for how they speak. Using them to imitate or caricature people, or putting on an "accent", comes across badly. Understanding them is useful; whether to use them depends on whether they are part of how your own friends talk. Aina in particular is hostile towards the police and best left alone.

Texting slang and abbreviations

Written Swedish online is short. Here are the abbreviations you will meet in messages, comments and group chats:

Mvh is not slang at all. It is the standard way to sign off an email, even a formal one, and it is the one abbreviation in this table you can safely use at work. A message that ends Mvh Anna sounds polite and neutral, perhaps a little cool. Hälsningar or Hälsningar, Anna is warmer; Kram is for friends.

Expect missing å, ä and ö too when people type quickly on foreign keyboards: hej da, gor du. If you need the letters on your own computer, the Swedish keyboard tool shows where they are.

Slang that sounds dated

Learners sometimes pick these up from old textbooks or films. People understand them, but they sound like a time capsule:

Using slang without sounding odd

1. Learn to understand everything, use a little. Typ, asså, tjena, najs and kram are safe for anyone. Fett, as- words and suburban slang are best left until you have a feel for who says them.
2. Watch the setting. Swedish workplaces are informal, so najs and typ in the coffee room are fine. Write standard Swedish in emails to clients, authorities and teachers.
3. Listen first. Slang changes fast, and the best source is real speech: Swedish podcasts, YouTube and TV made for young adults. Our guide to Swedish TV and podcasts has suggestions.
4. Check a word before you use it. Search it in the Swedish dictionary or in SAOL at svenska.se.

For colourful set phrases, see Swedish idioms.

FAQ

What is the most common Swedish slang word?

Probably typ, which works like English "like" and is used constantly by younger speakers. Asså (I mean, like) and the intensifier sjukt (really) are close behind.

How do you say "cool" in Swedish slang?

Say najs, grymt or coolt. Ball also means cool, but it sounds dated now. Kul looks similar but means fun, not cool.

How do you say "hello" in Swedish slang?

Tja or tjena is the standard informal hello. Young people in big cities often say sho, and hallå works as a loud "hey!".

What does "mvh" mean in Swedish?

Mvh stands for med vänliga hälsningar, "with kind regards". It is the normal, polite way to end an email, not slang.

What does "guss" mean?

Guss means girl. It comes from Turkish kız by way of suburban Swedish and is now listed in the Swedish Academy's word list, SAOL.

Is Rinkebysvenska a dialect?

Linguists describe it as a multiethnolect: a way of speaking Swedish that grew up among young people of many backgrounds in multilingual suburbs. It is not tied to one place in the way a regional dialect is, and many speakers move between it and standard Swedish depending on the situation.

Sources

• Swedish Academy word list, SAOL, at svenska.se (for guss and other entries). Last checked 7 October 2026.
• Etymologies of suburban slang: Wiktionary entries for guss, len, para, shuno, bre, jalla, wallah, yani, aina and keff (CC BY-SA). Last checked 7 October 2026.
• Kotsinas, Ulla-Britt (1988). "Rinkebysvenska – en dialekt?" In Svenskans beskrivning 16. The origin of the term Rinkebysvenska.

Keep going

Slang is learnt by ear, from real people talking at full speed. Our free Season 1 course is built on real Swedish speech with synced transcripts, so you can tap any word you do not know and hear it again. Start the free course.