The Swedish word order

We will work with the Swedish word order. It is fun, it is interesting and in several aspects it is different from the English word order. (If you have studied German, you can breathe –this is less complex! A lot less complex!)

Word order is one of the most important parts of speaking and writing and understanding Swedish. This is why it is good to start testing it out, already at the beginning of our studies. When we get it right, it makes life a lot easier. This will benifit both us and the people we are talking to, listening to and reading from. Just let us get it right from the start! Let us go step by step and take this adventure with this really exciting and interesting phenomena of Swedish –of course, through phrases and sentences we use daily.If you are ready, let’s start.☺

Jag vet. = I know. This is the basic word order for statements: subject+verb.

Jag vet inte. =I don’t know. (word–by–word: I know not.) In Swedish you do not use “do” to negate the sentence; you only add “inte” after the first verb. I know that we only have one verb now (know) and it may sound wrong that I call it “the first verb.” I do it so that you get used to this term as very soon, we will have sentences with several verbs (kan gå, har sett, skulle vilja höra, …) and I wish to build this up for you now, in order to avoid later confusion. I hope it is OK with you ☺

Jag vet inte det. = I don’t know this/that. Here we add an object (this/that) as well. If you want to emphasise that you know THIS or THAT, then you change the order of the words like this:

Det vet jag! = This/That I know! That is, the word or phrase that I want to emphasise has to go to the first place of the sentence and the subject (jag) goes right after the (first) verb.

Det vet jag inte. = THIS/THAT I don’t know. The word ”inte” goes one step more behind, after the subject. We make questions with switching some words around, too. We do not us any Swedish version of “do” here either:

Vet du det? = Do you know this/that? It is called a “yes/no question” and is formed like this: (first) verb + subject + object

Vad vet du? = What do you know? This is a so called “question–word question”: question word + (first) verb + subject. When we make imperative sentences (e.g. instructions and orders), just like in English, we leave the subject out:

Kom ihåg! = Remember!

Hur säger man ”girl” på svenska? = How does one say ”girl” in Swedish?

Det vet jag inte. = This/that I don’t know.

Vad heter hon? = What’s her name?

Jag minns inte. = I don’t remember.