Noun genders

Foundations

All Swedish nouns are either 'en' words (common gender) or 'ett' words (neuter gender).

How It Works

In Swedish, every noun has a grammatical gender. Grammatical gender is a noun classification and is not the same thing as a person’s gender. There are two genders:

  • Common gender (utrum): These are called 'en-words'. This is the larger group of nouns.
  • Neuter gender (neutrum): These are called 'ett-words'.

Why is this important?
A noun's gender is a core piece of information that affects several other parts of grammar. You cannot form correct sentences without knowing it. Specifically, the gender determines:

There are very few reliable rules to guess a noun's gender, so the best strategy is to learn the gender along with every new noun you encounter. Think of it as part of the word itself: not just 'bil' for car, but 'en bil'.

Examples (6)

  1. en bok

    a book

    'Bok' is a common gender (utrum) noun, so it uses 'en'.

  2. ett hus

    a house

    'Hus' is a neuter gender (neutrum) noun, so it uses 'ett'.

  3. en katt

    a cat

    Common gender (en-word).

  4. ett bord

    a table

    Neuter gender (ett-word).

  5. en stol blir stolen

    'a chair' becomes 'the chair'

    Word by Word: a chair becomes the-chair

    The common gender noun 'stol' takes the definite ending '-en'.

  6. ett äpple blir äpplet

    'an apple' becomes 'the apple'

    Word by Word: an apple becomes the-apple

    Äpple is neuter. Add -t after its final vowel: äpple → äpplet.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the wrong gender for a noun.

    Jag läser ett bok.
    Jag läser en bok.

    Noun gender is fixed and must be memorized. 'Bok' (book) is an 'en' word, so it must use 'en' as its indefinite article, not 'ett'. This is one of the most common mistakes for learners.

How It Connects

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

Noun gendersFoundations

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

And 1 more in the full list.

Words in This Pattern