How to use it
Play the sentence once and listen without typing. Play it again and write. Use the slower speed when a word escapes you, but try to finish at normal speed. When you check, misspelt words show the letters you missed, and you get a short explanation when the mistake is one of the classic Swedish traps.
Your answer never leaves the browser. Capital letters are ignored unless you tick the box, and punctuation is never marked.
The spelling traps
Swedish spelling is regular compared with English, but a handful of patterns cause most dictation mistakes. The tool recognises these:
| You hear | It can be written | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| sj-sound | sj, skj, stj, sk(e/i/y/ä/ö), ch, sch, -tion | sjuk, skjorta, stjärna, sköterska, choklad, dusch, station |
| tj-sound | tj, kj, k(e/i/y/ä/ö) | tjej, kjol, kyrka, kök |
| j-sound | j, dj, gj, hj, lj, g(e/i/y/ä/ö) | ja, djur, gjorde, hjälp, ljus, göra |
| short vowel + consonant | double consonant, ck for kk | tack, glass, komma, ligger |
| -it at the end | -igt | roligt, viktigt, tydligt |
| å | och, att (before a verb) | kaffe och kaka, roligt att läsa |
| dom | de (they), dem (them) | de flyttade, jag träffade dem |
| sh-like rs, curled rt, rd, rn | rs, rt, rd, rn | först, kort, bord, barn |
If the sj- and tj-sounds themselves are the problem, practise hearing them first in the pronunciation trainer.
Spoken forms you will hear
Everyday Swedish shortens common words. The voice here reads carefully, but real speakers will not, so know these before you meet them:
| Written | Usually said |
|---|---|
| jag | ja |
| mig, dig, sig | mej, dej, sej |
| är | e |
| det | de |
| och, att | å |
| de, dem | dom |
| med | me |
| sedan | sen |
Numbers, prices and times
Numbers are the classic listening problem: a price at the till or a platform number goes by in a second. The second mode reads random numbers, prices, clock times and mobile numbers for you to write down in digits. For the rules behind them, see the Swedish numbers converter and telling the time in Swedish.
Next steps
Dictation shows what you can catch from a clear computer voice. Real Swedish is faster. Try the tongue twisters to train your mouth, and when you want real speakers, Season 1 of our course is free in full, with every line transcribed and synced to the video.
All sentences were written for this tool. Spelling follows the Swedish Academy's word list (SAOL).
Frequently asked questions
Why practise dictation?
Dictation trains two things at once: hearing every word, including the small unstressed ones, and spelling what you hear. Swedish spelling hides a lot (silent letters, several spellings for one sound, words pronounced shorter than they are written), so writing from sound shows you exactly where your picture of a word is off.
Is i dag or idag correct?
Both are accepted. The Swedish Academy's word list (SAOL) includes idag, imorgon, ikväll and igår alongside the traditional two-word forms, which the Language Council still recommends in formal writing. This tool counts either as right.
Should I write dom?
Not in standard writing. Dom is how most people say both de (they) and dem (them), but written Swedish keeps de for the subject and dem for the object. The tool marks dom as a mistake and explains which one the sentence needs.
Whose voice reads the sentences?
Your own device's Swedish voice, so the tool is free and works offline once loaded. Computer voices are clear but flat, and they sometimes stress a word oddly. Real speech is faster and more reduced, which is why our course uses recordings of native speakers.
How do Swedes say phone numbers?
Usually the area code or mobile prefix digit by digit (noll sju noll), then the rest in groups, with the last pairs read as two-digit numbers: 45 67 is fyrtiofem sextiosju. Some people read every digit separately, so be ready for both.