Basic Swedish for Stockholm Visitors

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Sweden, including Stockholm city, is one of the travel destinations, where knowledge of English can make your visit pretty comfortable and manageable. On the contrary, knowing some useful phrases and most common sentences on Swedish might mean a world of convenience. Especially, it is very appropriate in the restaurants, hotels and other establishments, where English-speaking stuff is a rare phenomenon. A store of a few Swedish words and phrases would still be valuable and furthermore you might impress Stockholm residents by your broad background and knowledge of Swedish.

Swedish language is one of the four major languages in the Scandinavian region alongside Norwegian and Danish, united under Germanic origin. German and English are also sister languages of Swedish and, thus, you would find a lot of words and grammatical traditions in the German, the Swedish and the English language similar or related. The English ‘Thank you’, German ‘Danke’ and Swedish ‘Tack’ sound quite similar and mean the same thing. As one could guess, it facilitates understanding of Swedish words for English and German speaking tourists. In turn, Swedish speaking people can also easily understand English words and phrases they may not be familiar with before.

It is impossible not to mention that Swedish in the country is called Svenska and referred to as the most common and distributed in the region. Its alphabet does not differ much from standard Latin, except for tradditional three letters 'å', 'ä' and 'ö', which are usually used after “z”. There are also some peculiarities in reading of letters and letter combinations, for example, rs is read as “sh”; kj (and k before e, i, y, ä, o) – “ch”; sj, skj, stj – “sh”; tj as “ch”; o in the open or closed syllable is often as “u”. Some consonants (g, d) at the end of the word are almost unreadable, while the letter c before e, i, y is read as “s”, but in other cases - as “k”.

Despite the fact that every decent Stockholm resident knows English well enough, there are some phrases that you might need.

Most Common Salutary Phrases:

Hej! – Hello!
Tjéna! – Hey!
Tja! – Well!
God mórgon! – Good morning!
God dag!  - Good afternoon!
God kväll!  - Good evening!

Basic Phrases:

Snälla/Vänligen – Please
Varsågod – You’ re welcome
Tack! – Thank you!
Vad heter du? - Jag heter … - What's your name? – My name is…
Jog förstår inte – I don’t understand.
Talar du engelska? – Do yopu speak English?
Öppen – Opened
Stängd – Closed
Ingång – Entrance
Utgång – Exit

Phrases You May Use in Restaurants:

Finns det ett ledigt bord? – Is there a table free?
Ett bord för fyra, tack – A table for four, please
Kan jag få menyn? – The menu, please
Förrätt, varmrätt – First course, second course
Dessert – Dessert
Jag har beställt… - I ordered…
Jag skulle vilja ha… - I’d like…
Smaklig måltid! – Enjoy your meal!
Jag äter inte kött – I don’t eat meat.

Phrases You May Use in Hotels:

Jag har ett rum beställt – I have a room booked.
Jag behöver ett enkelrum (dubbelrum)  - I would like a single room (double room).
Hur mycket kostar rummet? - How much does a room cost?
Ingår frukost i priset? – Does price covers a breakfast?
Baggage – Baggage
Badrum – Bathroom
Frukost – Breakfast
Lunch – Lunch
Middag - Dinner (supper)
Nyckel – Key
Avresa – Departure
Räkning, nota – Bil