The 100 Most Common Swedish Words

These are the 100 most common Swedish words, ranked by how often they appear in real Swedish text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	och	ohk	and
2	i	ee	in
3	att	aht	to
4	det	deh	it
5	som	sohm	that / which (relative)
6	en	en	one
7	vara	VAH-rah	be
8	på	poh	on
9	av	ahv	of
10	för	fur	for
11	med	mehd	with
12	till	til	to
13	den	den	that
14	inte	IN-teh	not (negation)
15	ha	hah	have
16	om	ohm	if
17	han	hahn	he
18	hon	hoon	she
19	de	dohm	they
20	jag	yahg	I
21	du	doo	you
22	vi	vee	we
23	man	mahn	man
24	så	soh	so
25	men	men	but
26	sig	say	self
27	från	frohn	from
28	eller	EL-ler	or
29	kunna	KUN-nah	can
30	säga	SEH-yah	say
31	komma	KOM-mah	come
32	göra	YUR-ah	do
33	se	seh	see
34	veta	VEH-tah	know
35	år	ohr	year
36	tid	teed	time
37	dag	dahg	day
38	mycket	MEWK-et	very
39	bra	brah	good
40	när	nair	when
41	nu	noo	now
42	också	OK-soh	also
43	alla	AH-lah	all
44	vad	vahd	what
45	få	foh	get
46	gå	goh	go
47	stor	stoor	large
48	ny	new	new
49	människa	MEN-ee-shah	person
50	efter	EF-ter	after
51	ska	skah	shall / will
52	vilja	VIL-yah	want
53	bli	blee	become
54	finnas	FIN-nahs	exist (there is)
55	ta	tah	take
56	måste	MOHS-teh	must
57	annan	AHN-nahn	other
58	mer	mair	more
59	här	hair	here
60	där	dair	there
61	sedan	SEH-dahn	then / afterwards
62	bara	BAH-rah	only
63	än	en	than
64	någon	NOH-gohn	someone / some
65	ingen	ING-en	no one / none
66	min	min	my
67	din	din	your
68	vid	veed	at / by
69	under	UN-der	under
70	över	UR-ver	over
71	ut	oot	out
72	upp	up	up
73	tänka	TENG-kah	think
74	tro	troo	believe
75	tycka	TEWK-ah	think (have an opinion)
76	behöva	beh-HUR-vah	need
77	börja	BUR-yah	begin
78	ge	yeh	give
79	stå	stoh	stand
80	ligga	LIG-gah	lie (be located)
81	hitta	HIT-tah	find
82	fråga	FROH-gah	ask / question
83	tala	TAH-lah	speak
84	gång	gohng	time (occasion)
85	barn	barn	child
86	liv	leev	life
87	land	lahnd	country
88	värld	vaird	world
89	hem	hem	home
90	hus	hoos	house
91	del	dehl	part
92	två	tvoh	two
93	första	FURSH-tah	first
94	många	MOHNG-ah	many
95	samma	SAHM-mah	same
96	gammal	GAHM-mahl	old
97	liten	LEE-ten	small
98	lång	lohng	long
99	aldrig	AHL-drig	never
100	kanske	KAHN-sheh	maybe

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Ranked by lemma frequency in published Swedish corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

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Frequently asked questions about Swedish words

How many Swedish words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Swedish?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Swedish word list come from?

From published Swedish word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.