Borrowed grammar

Level 6

Swedish integrates loanwords, especially from English, by giving them Swedish grammatical properties. Nouns get a gender (en/ett) and plural endings, while verbs are conjugated like regular Swedish verbs, usually following the -ar pattern.

How It Works

The integration of loanwords is a dynamic process reflecting language contact. While English is the dominant source today, Swedish has a long history of borrowing from German, French, and Latin. For advanced learners, understanding the patterns of integration is key to using modern Swedish fluently.

1. Noun Integration (Gender and Plural)

  • Gender Assignment: There are no strict rules, but tendencies exist. En is the default and most common gender for new loanwords. Words for people are almost always en (e.g., en manager, en konsult). Semantic or morphological analogy can influence gender, but learn the attested form rather than guessing from sound. Dator is a Swedish formation based on data and -or, not a direct borrowed word.
  • Plural Forms: This is where it gets interesting.
    • The -s Plural: A direct import from English, the -s plural is very common for recent loanwords, especially those ending in a vowel (e.g., emojis, smoothies) or certain consonants. An -s plural does not by itself prove that a word is new or informal. Check the forms recorded for the individual word. Example: två containers.
    • Swedish Plurals: Many established loanwords have fully adopted Swedish plural patterns. For example: en blogg -> flera bloggar (-ar), ett system -> flera system (neuter plural), en expert -> flera experter (-er).
    • Variation: Some words can have both forms, reflecting different stages of integration or register. For example, container can be pluralized as containers (more English-like) or containrar (more Swedified). Both containrar and containers are recorded in Svensk ordbok; there is no universal register ranking between every Swedish-ending plural and every -s plural.

2. Verb Integration
The rule here is remarkably consistent: borrowed verbs almost universally join the first conjugation. They are given an -a infinitive ending and follow the standard pattern.

  • Infinitive: att googla (to google), att mejla (to email), att tagga (to tag)
  • Present: googlar, mejlar, taggar
  • Past: googlade, mejlade, taggade
  • Supine: googlat, mejlat, taggat

This makes using new verbs very predictable.

3. Adjective Integration
Some borrowed modifiers do not inflect, while others follow Swedish adjective agreement. The following hyphenated examples instead use offline- as the first component of a compound; they do not by themselves demonstrate free adjective agreement.

  • `en offline-kurs` (an offline course)
  • `ett offline-möte` (an offline meeting)
  • `flera offline-kurser` (several offline courses)

Borrowed adjectives can follow standard adjective agreement rules (e.g., global, globalt, globala).

Check The Whole Paradigm
A spelling or plural choice affects later forms too. Språkrådet generally recommends Swedish inflection where it provides usable definite forms. Compare en emoji, emojin, emojier, emojierna; emojis is also common. Do not infer a whole paradigm from the final sound alone. Borrowed verbs such as chatta and mejla fit the productive first conjugation, but noun plurals and gender still need individual checking.

Examples (5)

  1. Jag googlade hans namn för att hitta mer information.

    I googled his name to find more information.

    Word by Word: I googled his name for to find more information.

    The English verb 'to google' is integrated as the Swedish -ar verb att googla, here shown in the past tense googlade.

  2. Kan du skicka över alla mejlen från igår?

    Can you send over all the emails from yesterday?

    Word by Word: Can you send over all the-emails from yesterday?

    The loanword mejl is an ett-word. Here it takes the definite plural ending for neuter nouns: mejlen.

  3. Många moderna startups har en väldigt avslappnad kultur.

    Many modern startups have a very relaxed culture.

    Word by Word: Many modern startups have a very relaxed culture.

    The noun startup is a loanword that takes the Swedish plural ending -s. This is common for recent borrowings.

  4. Hon jobbar som konsult på ett stort IT-företag.

    She works as a consultant at a large IT company.

    Word by Word: She works as consultant at a big IT-company.

    Konsult is an established loanword. It's an en-word and its plural is konsulter, following a standard Swedish pattern.

  5. Det här är ett offline-evenemang, så du måste vara på plats.

    This is an offline event, so you have to be there in person.

    Word by Word: This here is an offline-event, so you must be on location.

    Offline- is the first component of the compound offline-evenemang and does not take an agreement ending there. This compound is not a test of how a free-standing adjective agrees.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding -s To The Already Plural Datorer

    Jag har två nya datorers.
    Jag har två nya datorer.

    Dator is a Swedish formation, and its plural is datorer. Do not stack an English plural -s onto that plural in this sentence. For a genuine loanword, compare blogg → bloggar.

  • Forgetting to conjugate borrowed verbs.

    Vi chat på kvällen.
    Vi chattar på kvällen.

    When a verb is borrowed into Swedish, it must be conjugated. 'To chat' becomes att chatta, and its present tense is chattar.

  • Guessing the wrong gender for a loanword noun.

    Jag fick en viktigt mejl.
    Jag fick ett viktigt mejl.

    Loanwords are assigned a grammatical gender that must be learned. Mejl (email) is an ett-word (neuter), so adjectives modifying it must take the -t ending, e.g., viktigt.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Borrowed grammarLevel 6

Learn This First

To understand how loanwords are integrated into Swedish, you first need to understand the core building blocks of Swedish nouns, specifically how gender, definite suffixes, and plural endings are applied to any word.