Swedish Numbers 1–10
We’ll start at the beginning, learning to count from one to ten. Even Swedish beginners will probably learn to count to ten in one of their first lessons. Memorizing these numbers won’t be too difficult for English speakers, as there is a resemblance between English numbers and Swedish numbers.
One thing to note is, however, the number one in Swedish. You might already have learned that there are two words for one in Swedish:
- en: used for common gender nouns, for example, “en katt” (one cat) or “en man” (one man)
- ett: used for neuter gender nouns, for example, “ett hus” (one house) or “ett äpple” (one apple)
What if you just want to say number one without a noun afterwards? Well, it’s not a written rule, but when Swedes count, they usually use “ett” rather than “en”. However, as you might need to use both gender versions of the word, we’ll list them both in the lists in this article.
Let’s get started:
| Numbers | Swedish Numbers |
| 1 | en/ett |
| 2 | två |
| 3 | tre |
| 4 | fyra |
| 5 | fem |
| 6 | sex |
| 7 | sju |
| 8 | åtta |
| 9 | nio |
| 10 | tio |
Swedish Numbers 11–19
As is true in English, Swedish numbers get pretty easy to form after twenty, whereas eleven to nineteen are more irregular and need to be memorized.
However, there is still a pretty close resemblance between the Swedish and the English numbers 11–19. Just as the English thirteen to nineteen end with “teen”, the Swedish equivalents end with “ton”:
| Numbers | Swedish Numbers |
| 11 | elva |
| 12 | tolv |
| 13 | tretton |
| 14 | fjorton |
| 15 | femton |
| 16 | sexton |
| 17 | sjutton |
| 18 | arton |
| 19 | nitton |
