Swedish Numbers: How To Count And Talk About Numbers In Swedish

If you're learning Swedish then Swedish numbers are one of the first things you should learn.

Think about it. In most basic conversations, you use numbers in some way.

Maybe you need to ask for the time, give your phone number to a friend or perhaps you're wondering what a particular item costs at the flea market.

Learning Swedish numbers is the surest way to actually start these conversations and improve your language proficiency.

If you're just beginning your Swedish learning journey it’s crucial to quickly iron out the correct pronunciation and spelling of the numbers in Swedish.

Let’s take a look at the Swedish numbers!

Swedish Numbers 0 To 10

When you start learning numbers in a language, any language, the first you learn are usually zero to ten and then you improve your knowledge from there.

This is how zero to ten is spelt in Swedish!

*(depending on which word comes after it)

This is in general a good starting point because the later numbers will, for the most part, be a combination of these numbers.

It’s a good idea to keep practising these words until you have a good understanding of both their Swedish pronunciation and the numbers. 

How To Count To 100 In Swedish

The next step is to count to 100.

Swedish is quite similar to English in the sense that the first few sets of tens don't really follow the numerical pattern while they become more consistent around 50.

Let’s take a look at these Swedish numbers!

Most of the sets of ten, except tio, tjugo, and hundra, ends with either tio or ttio. They also mostly follow the numerical pattern of 1 to 10.

Tio and tjugo are really the only ones that don’t follow the numerical pattern, except for hundra, of course.

That means that 30 through 90 all follow the base numbers of 3 to 9. As you can see, some numbers keep their original spelling while some have slight changes. The numbers that end with a vowel also have the spelling of ttio instead of tio. 

When it comes to actually counting to 100 in Swedish, it’s pretty easy. You just have to combine the set of tens with 1 to 9. 29 becomes tjugonio, for example, and 72 becomes sjuttiotvå.

The numbers follow the numerical pattern very closely, and the only exception is for the numbers 11-19. They're different from the rest of the numbers and they don’t really follow a set rule either. You’ll just have to learn them.

They look like this:

Do you recognise them? They are very similar to the English numbers 11 to 19, so if you're an English speaker you'll probably have quite a big advantage when it comes to learning Swedish numbers. Good news right?

The Different Ways To Say “One” In Swedish

Now that you know a bit more about Swedish numbers it’s time to speak about something I touched on a bit above: the multiple ways to say “one” in Swedish.

Both en and ett are used pretty commonly and that’s because they change depending on the word that comes after it.

For example, the word hund uses en, while träd uses ett:

• en hund, två hundar, tre hundar (one dog, two dogs, three dogs)
• ett träd, två träd, tre träd (one tree, two trees, three trees)

There isn’t really any rule to this, so you just have to learn it. The good news is that if you use the StoryLearning method and read a lot in Swedish, you'll soon pick up whether to use en or ett.

Telling The Time In Swedish

Now that you hopefully have mastered the Swedish numbers it’s time to implement that knowledge into real-life conversations with Swedish speakers.

One of the most common situations where you use numbers is when you're asking about the time.

It’s one of those things that you’ll probably have to do at least once in your life so let’s touch upon how you can ask and answer about the time in Swedish.

These are the basic phrases to use:

• Hur mycket är klockan? (What time is it?)
• Klockan är … (The time is…)

If the time is on the hour, then it’s quite easy to say. You just use the numbers from 1-12 or from 1-24 that are shown above.

For example:

• Klockan är sju (It’s seven o clock)
• Klockan är sexton (It’s sixteen o'clock (4 pm))

You might notice that you can say the time in two ways in Sweden, depending on if you use the 12-hour notation or the 24-hour notation.

Sweden mainly uses the 24-hour notation, except for analogue clocks that use the 12-hour notation. It is, however, more and more common to tell the time using the “digital-clock-way”. 

If you use the digital way, you simply say the numbers that appear on the clock. For example, if the time is 17:23 you answer with klockan är sjutton tjugotre, which is just these two numbers put together. 

Telling The Time The Analogue Way

But you can also use the analogue way to tell the time, which is similar to “am” and “pm” used in English-speaking countries. You just have to use på förmiddagen and på eftermiddagen, respectively.

For example:

• Klockan är fyra på eftermiddagen (It’s 4 pm.)

If you use the analogue way and want to tell a time that isn’t on the hour, you just add i or över to the sentence to indicate if it’s before or after the full hour.

For example:

• Klockan är tjugo i tre (It’s twenty to three.)
• Klockan är kvart över sex (It’s a quarter past six.)

It’s quite easy when you get the hang of it, and it follows the same pattern that English does. So if you're an English speaker then it will probably be easier for you to learn the analogue way to tell the time in a conversation.

Swedish Numbers: How To Give Your Phone Number In Swedish

If you ever have an impromptu chat with a local in Sweden and it’s time to say goodbye, perhaps you want to stay in contact with them and find a way to communicate.

To be able to keep the friendship going, you need to be able to give your phone number to that friend.

It’s really easy to give your phone number because you use the numbers 0 to 9 that are mentioned above. 

For example:

• Mitt nummer är noll, sju, två- xxxx (my number is 072-xxxx)

How About Swedish Ordinal Numbers?

If you’ve never heard about cardinal or ordinal numbers before, this concept might sound strange.

But it’s not so hard when you learn it. In short, cardinal numbers are used to indicate an amount, like 1, 2, 3 etc., while ordinal numbers show a position in a series, like first, second, third etc.

In Swedish the ordinal numbers are as follows:

• första/e (1st)
• andra/e (2nd)
• tredje (3rd)
• fjärde (4th)
• femte (5th)
• etc.

They are quite similar to English and pretty easy to learn. One thing to note is, however, that första and andra both have masculine and feminine forms.

The masculine uses the “e” ending, while the feminine the “a” ending. This is something you will learn eventually though. 

How To Give Prices In Swedish

The final step is to learn how to buy in Swedish, and for that, you need to be able to discuss and give prices.

If you're at the flea market or the supermarket and want to ask how much something costs you can say it like this:

• Hur mycket kostar varan? (How much does it cost?)

And you can answer this way:

• Varan kostar tretton kronor (The article costs thirteen crowns)
• Varan kostar hundrafemtiofem kronor (The article costs one hundred and fifty-five crowns)

It’s pretty easy to give prices because you just have to say the cardinal number. As for numbers over a hundred you just combine all the numbers like this:

• hundra (one hundred)
• femtio (fifty)
• fem (five)

And the end result is: hundrafemtiofem (155)

Most of the prices are usually above 100 though (the cost of living is quite high in Sweden), so let’s take a look at how 100 through 1000 are spelled.

FAQs About Swedish Numbers

Swedish Numbers: This Is How To Count In Swedish

You've reached the end of this guide, and hopefully, the Swedish numbers are much, much clearer now.

Remember that this is just a starting point, and you need to keep practising the numbers to get them completely right.

Fortunately, if you're an English speaker then this will be way easier for you because Swedish numbers and English numbers are fairly similar.

The answer to is Swedish hard to learn? is generally “no” for English speakers.

In the meantime, follow the rules of StoryLearning and read short stories in Swedish where you'll see the Swedish numbers in context again and again.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.