Swedish is a language derived from Old Norse, and its closest relatives are Danish and Norwegian. These languages are so similar that a Swede can easily understand a Norwegian, but they often struggle to understand a Dane due to pronunciation differences.

More distant cousins to Swedish include Icelandic, which also descends from Old Norse, and even more distantly, English, German, and Dutch.

Swedish does not use masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns like German does. Instead, it has two grammatical genders: common and neuter.

The Swedish word “gift” is a false friend—it can mean either “poison” or “married” depending on the context.

The Swedish alphabet contains the standard 26 Latin letters, plus 3 additional characters unique to Scandinavian languages: Å, Ä, and Ö.

Ironically, Swedish almost doesn’t need to be learned as a second language in some cases, as about 90% of Swedes speak English proficiently.

Partly due to Sweden once ruling Finland, Swedish is an official language in Finland today, spoken by about 5% of the population.

One of the few Swedish words to enter the English language is “smorgasbord,” which literally means “sandwich table.”

Traditionally, Swedish doesn’t have a formal future tense. Instead, it uses clever constructions to express future meaning.

Most loanwords in Swedish that come from English relate to technology or pop culture.

The letter R in Swedish is usually rolled, much like the double R in Spanish.

Sweden didn’t adopt a standardized spelling system until the 19th century.

The letter W was not officially recognized in the Swedish alphabet until 2006.

Interestingly, there’s a Swedish version of the internet acronym LOL. Instead, Swedes use ASG, short for “asgarv”, which means “loud laugh.”

Some Swedish dialects feature nasal vowels, much like French.

Recently, there has been an academic and hobbyist movement in Sweden to revive Old Swedish, which closely resembles Old Norse and modern Icelandic.