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Learn Swedish with videos · A2–B1 · 29 min

Learn Swedish with “Lär dig förstå talad svenska - 5 tips”

A video by Swedish Linguist, with the words to know first and an honest look at how hard it is.

“Tjena tjena! Det här är Simple Swedish Podcast. Jag heter Fredrik. Och idag ska vi prata om hörförståelse.…” is the opening line. Video © Swedish Linguist, embedded from YouTube.

How hard is it?

82% of the words spoken in this video are among the 1,000 most common in Swedish, 86% among the 2,000 most common and 91% among the 5,000 most common. That puts the vocabulary at roughly A2–B1.

This measures words only; speed, accents and background noise matter too. Not sure of your own level? Take the free level test.

Words to know before you watch

The words from the video most worth learning, most frequent first. Each one links to its full entry.

lyssna
listen
väldigt
enormously, very
ord
word
samtal
discussion, conversation
alltså
in other words, accordingly
svenska
Swedish, Swede
viktigt
importantly
språk
language
liksom
so to speak, as it were
person
person
punkt
point, full stop
såklart
of course, of course; naturally
läsa
read, study
bygga
construct, build
hjärna
brain
träna
practise, train
helhet
whole, entirety
därför
so, for that reason
faktiskt
as a matter of fact
lära
teach
ganska
fairly
nummer
number
självförtroende
confidence, self-confidence
svårt
hard, difficult, tricky, difficult

How to study with it

  1. Read the word list below first and say each word out loud once.
  2. Watch with Swedish subtitles on (the CC button), not English ones. Pause whenever a whole sentence goes past you.
  3. Watch a second time without subtitles. You will be surprised how much more you catch.
  4. Pick three sentences you understood and say them back, copying the rhythm.

In Lingolib, Watch opens any Swedish YouTube video with a transcript that follows along: tap a word to see what it means and save it for practice.

More videos at A2–B1