Counting in Swedish

Language overview

North Germanic language of the Indo-European family, Swedish (svenska) is the official language of Sweden and co-official in Finland. Swedish counts about 9.2 million speakers.

Swedish numbering rules

Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).

• Digits and numbers from zero to twelve are specific words: noll [0], en / en / ett (m/f/n) [1], två [2], tre [3], fyra [4], fem [5], sex [6], sju [7], åtta [8], nio [9], tio [10], elva [11], and tolv [12].
• From thirteen to nineteen, the numbers are formed from the matching digits, adding a form of the word for ten (ton) at the end: tretton [13], fjorton [14], femton [15], sexton [16], sjutton [17], arton [18], and nitton [19].
• The tens are formed by suffixing the digit root with the word for ten (tio), except for ten and twenty: tio [10], tjugo [20], trettio [30], fyrtio [40], femtio [50], sextio [60], sjuttio [70], åttio [80], and nittio [90].
• From twenty-one to ninety-nine, the tens and units are joined with no space (e.g.: fyrtioåtta [48], sextiotre [63]).
• Hundreds are formed by stating the multiplier digit before the word for hundred (hundra, which is of a neuter gender), except for one hundred where it is optional: hundra / etthundra [100], tvåhundra [200], trehundra [300], fyrahundra [400], femhundra [500], sexhundra [600], sjuhundra [700], åttahundra [800], and niohundra [900].
• Thousands are formed the same way as hundreds, i.e. by stating the multiplier digit before the word for thousand (tusen, neuter too), except for one thousand where it is optional: tusen / ettusen [1,000], tvåtusen [2,000], tretusen [3,000], fyratusen [4,000], femtusen [5,000], sextusen [6,000], sjutusen [7,000], åttatusen [8,000], and niotusen [9,000].
• Compound numbers are grouped in blocks of three digits with no space, these blocks being separated with spaces (e.g.: trehundrafyrtiofem [345], ettusen niohundrasjuttiofem [1,975], etthundratusen femhundrafemtiosju [100,557]).
• Higher scale numbers are miljon (plural: miljoner) or 10⁶, miljard (plural: miljarder) (10⁹, the US billion), biljon (plural: biljoner) (10¹², the US trillion), all of them masculine.

Write a number in full in Swedish

Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Swedish. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.

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North Germanic languages

Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian (Bokmål), and Swedish.

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