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Swedish/Pronouns

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Personal pronouns (Personliga pronomen)

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Person Nominative Accusative Genitive
1st singular jag mig (mej) min
2nd singular du dig (dej) din
3rd masculine han honom hans
3rd feminine hon henne hennes
3rd gender neutral hen hen[1][2] hens
3rd indefinite man en ens
3rd common den den dess
3rd neuter det det dess
reflexive -- sig (sej) --
1st plural vi oss vår
2nd plural ni er er
3rd plural de (dom) dem (dom) deras

Possessive pronouns (Possessiva pronomen)

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Person Singular uter Singular neuter Plural
1st min mitt mina
2nd din ditt dina
1st plural vår vårt våra
2nd plural er ert era
reflexive sin sitt sina

Notes: (1) strikethrough letters are often silent in everyday speech. (2) Words in parenthesis are the spoken form. When they appear in text, they are colloquial on the same level as "gonna" or "wanna" in English.

"Second person plural" means "second person plural." In Swedish there has been a marked difference between usage in Finland-Swedish compared to in Sweden. While the form Ni (noted as formal above) has remained the common respectful address in Finland-Swedish, it was until the 1960s considered somewhat careless, bullying or rude in Sweden, where addressing in 3rd person with repetition of name and title was considered proper and respectful. After that the usage swiftly changed in Sweden, and the 2nd person du (noted as informal above) came to dominate totally, until recently when in the late 1990s a usage resembling that in German, Finnish or Finland-Swedish has become popular among the youngest adults as a kind of false archaism. It is also now common to see Du capitalized in places where the formal Ni would have been used before, such as in printed instructions or on signs.

Examples

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Svenska
  • Jag gillar dig.
  • Gillar du mig?
  • Du har blommor i ditt hår.
  • Man borde se sig om i världen.
  • Äpplena är hans.
  • Nej, äpplena är mina.
  • Hon gav äpplet till honom.
  • Hon gav hens äpple til barnet
  • Han behöll äpplet för sig själv.
  • Han delade inte äpplet med henne.
    De åt det inte tillsammans.
  • Deras väska är tung. Vår är lätt.
  • Men våra hundar kan äta era hundar.
  • Dina sköna blåa händer är inte lika starka som mina.
English
  • I like you.
  • Do you like me?
  • You have flowers in your hair.
  • One should look oneself around (i.e. travel) in the world.
  • The apples are his.
  • No, the apples are mine.
  • She gave the apple to him.
  • She gave their apple [his/her] to the child
  • He kept the apple for himself.
  • He did not share the apple with her.
    They did not eat it together.
  • Their suitcase is heavy. Ours is light.
  • But our dogs can eat your dogs.
  • Your beautiful blue hands are not as strong as mine.
  1. "hen | SAOL | svenska.se" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  2. Bylin, Maria; Melander, Björn (2023). Språkrådet rekommenderar. Stockholm: Institutet för språk och folkminnen. p. 51.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)