Svenska

Qualm

Hej hej!

I am an Irish student working in the University in Umea in northern Sweden for the summer. When I arrived I hadn't a word of the language, but I am picking some up. Unfortunately, most of these words are from signs, food packages, etc and so I have very little idea of pronounciation. While Swedes have fantastic English, most look confused when I try to talk any Swedish to them, because I say them completely wrong, especially place names! I'm wondering if you could give me some pointers, as the vowel sounds here seem rather more complicated than English. Does the letter K always give a "sh" sound, and does "J" always give a "y" sound? I know how the extra vowels here are generally pronounced (A with a circle is "aw", A with dots is "euh" and O with dots "oo", do I have that right?) but trying to combine them in words is difficult! Somebody mentioned to me about double consonants following vowels changing the length of them?

If you could help me, it would be greatly appreciated! I know all the important words like "systembologet" and "ol", but I think I'll need more words in the future!! Thanks,

Susan

davros

Hejsan!

For myself, when beginning a new language, I need two things: a basic instruction book and a real-life teacher for a few lessons.

In the book, there will be a concise description of how each letter is pronounced. Often, the description for a particular letter is similar to "like ch but with the tongue more forward in the mouth". It's too hard to perfect such pronunciations from written descriptions - that's why I need a real teacher too, just for a few lessons.

After that, lessons are still good, but you can also pick up vocabulary from your environment, as you said. Particularly good in Sweden is subtitled TV. There are lots of English-language shows with Swedish subtitles.

Listen to the radio as well. Music stations have a small vocabulary, much repeated, so you can hear certain phrases over and over. I happened to like Swedish music too (Louise Hoffsten would be my favourite), so I naturally learned the words of Swedish songs.

Anyway, you have the right idea. Crack the pronunciation first. It shouldn't take you long.

markisevil

A book with pointers to pronunciation will be useful (giving approximate English equivalents).

Some other tips: each of the vowels has two different pronunciations, long or short, depending on whether it's following a hard or a soft consonant respectively (similar to Irish, in fact), but you'll need a book for the lists of which is which. Swedish pronunciation is quite systematic, so once you learn the sounds, you can sound out any word. Every letter in a word is pronounced.

It's tough. I've been living here for four years and still find it very difficult to pronounce everything.

biko

Re: Swedish pronunciation - this is funny, kinda:
http://download.slayradio.org/mastering_swedish_-_lesson_3.mp3

For the text, see http://www.slayradio.org/mastering_swedish_lesson_3.php

killermonkey

hej! im a bit of a swedish freak...as in i have a few friends over there and visited once last year and fell in love with the country, i just wanted to find out how u got that job in the university of umea? is it a summer job or is it part of erasmus/socrates or something? cos im thnking of going over to sweden next summer to work, if thats in any way possible. just interested to know a bit more bout what u mentioned (qualm) or any advice anyone might have would be appreciated - tack sa mycket!