Swedish 101 (part 4)

Här nedan följer den fjärde delen i Klurbloggens nybörjarkurs i svenska, som erbjuds för att göra Klurendrejeriet® tillgänglig för de som inte har svenska som modersmål.








Island in the stream?


In this session of Swedish 101, we will take a look at the three Swedish letters Å, Ä, and Ö. Unlike German, these characters are treated as separate letters and not just umlauted versions of A and O, which is essential when for instance sorting entries in a dictionary or train timetable. You will not find the city of Härnösand listed in the "Har" or "Haer" section, but rather in its own order under "Hä". The letters are placed last in the Swedish alphabet (... y, z, å, ä, ö), and all being vowels, they bring the total to nine separate vowels in the language (y is also counted as a vowel). Ä by itself does not mean anything, but å is the Swedish word for stream and ö is the Swedish word for island.