Swedish vowels: the nine letters, long and short, with tables

Nine letters, seventeen sounds

Swedish has nine vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u, y, å, ä, ö. Each can be long or short, and long and short versions often sound different in quality, not only in length. Standard central Swedish ends up with about seventeen distinct vowel sounds, plus a few extra variants before r. English speakers find that a lot, but the system is regular, and the spelling tells you most of what you need.

If you only take one thing from this guide, take this: vowel length changes meaning. Tak is a roof, tack is thank you. Get length right and Swedes will understand you even with a strong accent. You can train your ear on pairs like these in the Swedish pronunciation trainer.

Long or short: the spelling rule

In a stressed syllable, Swedish has either a long vowel followed by a short consonant, or a short vowel followed by a long consonant. Never two longs, never two shorts. The spelling usually shows which:

• Long vowel: followed by one consonant, or by none. tak (roof), vila (rest), se (see), bo (live).
• Short vowel: followed by a double consonant or by two or more different consonants. tack (thanks), villa (house), hund (dog), mjölk (milk).

The difference is timing. In tak the vowel is held and the k is quick; in tack the vowel is clipped and the k is held, almost doubled. If you exaggerate the consonant in short-vowel words, the vowel tends to come out right by itself.

Exceptions to learn

A handful of very common short words have a short vowel before a single consonant: han (he), hon (she), man (man, one), den (it), men (but), vem (who), som (who, that), kom (came), fram (forward), hem (home), rum (room). Swedish avoids writing a double m or n at the end of a word, which is why these look long. When -m or -n words get an ending, the double letter appears: rum, rummet; man, mannen.

Unstressed syllables always have short vowels, whatever the spelling: the -a in flicka, the -e in pojke.

The long vowels

Three things surprise English speakers here. The letter o usually sounds like English oo, not oh. The letter u is a sound English does not have at all. And å, not o, is the letter for the oh-like sound.

The short vowels

Short e and short ä have merged in most of Sweden: sett (seen) and sätt (way) sound the same, as do vecka (week) and väcka (wake). You do not need to tell them apart in speech, only in spelling.

The tricky letter o

The letter o has two sounds and no reliable rule for which:

• The oo-sound [uː] / [ʊ], most often: sol (sun), bok (book), stor (big), ost (cheese), orm (snake).
• The å-sound [oː] / [ɔ], in a large minority: son (son), lov (holiday), kol (coal), sova (sleep), and very often when short: komma (come), boll (ball), kopp (cup).

That is why kol (coal) and kål (cabbage) sound the same. Learn o-words by ear, and check a recording in the dictionary when in doubt.

Rounded or spread: the lips do the work

The vowels English speakers mix up most are the front ones, where the tongue stays still and only the lips change.

Practise in front of a mirror. Say a long i, freeze your tongue, and push your lips out: you get y. Say a long e, freeze, round your lips: ö. If your tongue moves, the sound slides towards English and loses its Swedish colour.

U and y are worth a separate word. Swedish y is rounded i. Swedish long u is different again: the lips are squeezed together, more than pushed out, and the sound is in the middle of the mouth. Pairs to practise: sur (sour) and syr (sews), mur (wall) and myr (bog), mus (mouse) and mys (cosiness).

Vowels before r

Before r, ä and ö open up and sound deeper: här (here), lära (learn), höra (hear), dörr (door). Compare säl (seal) with här, and söt (sweet) with höra. This happens automatically for many learners and nobody misunderstands you if it does not. Treat it as polish.

Regional differences

Vowels vary a lot across the Swedish-speaking world. In Gothenburg and parts of the west, long o and u can sound different from Stockholm. In Skåne many long vowels become diphthongs, gliding sounds. Finland Swedish has its own vowel colours and allows short vowels before single consonants where Sweden has long ones. The descriptions here follow central Swedish, the variety of the national news, which every Swede understands.

FAQ

How many vowels does Swedish have?

Nine vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, y, å, ä, ö), and about seventeen vowel sounds in central Swedish: nine long and eight short, because short e and short ä have merged. A few more variants appear before r.

What is the hardest Swedish vowel?

For English speakers, usually u, followed by y. Neither exists in English, and both are easy to confuse with each other and with English oo. Start by learning y as a rounded i; then u as an oo pushed forward with tight lips.

Are å, ä and ö just a and o with accents?

No. They are separate letters with their own sounds, and they come after z in the alphabet. Swapping them changes words: får (sheep, or gets) is not far (dad).

Why do I need double consonants?

Because they show the vowel before them is short, and vowel length changes meaning. Writing tak when you mean tack gives a reader the wrong word, just as saying it does. Our dictation tool is a good way to train the link between length and spelling.

Practise

Start with the long-and-short and vowel sets in the pronunciation trainer: listen until you can hear every pair, then try saying them. Our main pronunciation guide covers the consonants, and the guide to Swedish word tones the melody. For sounds in real sentences, Season 1 of our course is free in full, with native speakers in every lesson.