Swedish numbers converter

How Swedish numbers work

Swedish numbers are regular once you know about twenty words. Everything from 21 to 999 999 is built by joining those words together, biggest part first, into a single word: tjugo + ett = tjugoett (21), fem + hundra + fyrtio + tre = femhundrafyrtiotre (543). Unlike German or Danish, there is no reversal (21 is not "one and twenty") and no counting in twenties.

Numbers 0 to 20

Watch arton (18), spelled without the å of åtta (8), and the pairs that are easy to confuse by ear: sju (7) and tjugo (20) start with two different sh-like sounds, the sj sound and the tj sound, and sex (6), sexton (16) and sextio (60) differ only in the ending.

The tens

In speech the final -o of the tens usually disappears: trettio sounds like tretti, and fyrtio like förti. Write the full form. To make 21 to 99, add the unit straight on: tjugoett, trettiotvå, fyrtiotre, nittionio.

Hundreds, thousands and one-word numbers

• One word below a million. Tvåtusenfemhundrafyrtiotre looks long, but that is the rule. In practice Swedes write numbers like this in digits.
• Hundra or etthundra. The ett in front of hundra and tusen is optional at the start of a number. Inside a number it is often kept: tusenetthundra (1 100), tvåtusenetthundra (2 100).
• Three t's become two. Ett + tusen is written ettusen, and 21 000 is tjugoettusen.
• Elvahundra, tolvhundra. In speech, round numbers between 1 100 and 1 900 are often counted in hundreds: femtonhundra kronor (1 500 kr).

Big numbers: miljon, miljard, biljon

Miljon and miljard are en-words that behave like nouns: they have a plural (miljoner, miljarder), they are written as separate words, and a number in front of them that ends in one takes the en form: en miljon, tjugoen miljoner, hundraen miljarder.

En or ett?

The number one has two forms. When you count, give a phone number or read a number on its own, say ett. In front of a noun, one agrees with the noun's gender: en kopp (one cup), ett glas (one glass). The same goes for numbers ending in one: tjugoen kronor, because krona is an en-word, but tjugoett år, because år is an ett-word. Many people say tjugoett in both cases, and both are accepted, but the agreeing form tjugoen is the traditional choice in careful writing. Not sure of a noun's gender? Try the en or ett checker.

Ordinal numbers 1 to 31

First to twelfth are irregular and worth learning by heart: första, andra, tredje, fjärde, femte, sjätte, sjunde, åttonde, nionde, tionde, elfte, tolfte. From 13 you add -de or -nde: trettonde, tjugonde. For 21st, 22nd and so on only the last part changes: tjugoförsta, tjugoandra, trettioförsta. Big ones: hundrade (100th), tusende (1 000th). Written with digits, ordinals take a colon and the last letter: 1:a, 2:a, 3:e, 21:a, but 11:e and 12:e.

Telling the time in Swedish

In conversation Swedes use a 12-hour clock with över (past) and i (to), and they count the half hour towards the next hour. This is where English speakers get caught out.

Ask the time with Vad är klockan? or Hur mycket är klockan? (both are common) and answer Klockan är halv nio or just Halv nio. For timetables, bookings and announcements the 24-hour clock is used, read as two numbers: 13.45 is tretton och fyrtiofem or trettonfyrtiofem, while in conversation the same time is kvart i två. Swedish writes times with a full stop (13.45), though a colon is common too.

Years, dates and prices

Years. Years before 2000 are counted in hundreds: 1987 is nittonhundraåttiosju. For years after 2009 you will hear both tjugohundratjugosex and tvåtusentjugosex for 2026. No word for "in" is needed: Jag föddes 1987 (I was born in 1987), or år 1987.

Dates. Dates use the ordinal with den: den tjugosjätte september (26 September). Months and weekdays take no capital letter. A date is written 26 september, 26/9 (day first) or, on forms, 2026-09-26. Colloquially you may hear den tjugosjätte i nionde, the twenty-sixth of the ninth.

Prices. A price like 39,90 kr is said trettionio och nittio or trettionio nittio at the till, and trettionio kronor och nittio öre in full. Swedish uses a decimal comma and writes whole-krona prices as 39 kr or 39:-. One krona is en krona; öre is an ett-word, so ett öre.

Common mistakes

• Halv nio for 9.30. It means 8.30. Think "half way to nine".
• Biljon for billion. A billion is en miljard.
• Splitting numbers into words. Tjugo fem should be tjugofem.
• Ett before an en-word. One cup is en kopp, not ett kopp. With 21, 31 and so on, both tjugoen kronor and tjugoett kronor are accepted.
• A decimal point. Swedish writes 3,5 and says tre komma fem, and uses a space, not a comma, between thousands: 2 500 000.

Frequently asked questions