Swedish Genealogical Word List

This list contains Swedish words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Swedish-English dictionary. (See the "Additional Resources" section below.)

Swedish is a Germanic language, as are Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic. Most differences between modern and old Swedish are simply a matter of spelling. Carefully study the Spelling section in "Language Characteristics" below. This will help you find the words in this list.

Swedish is spoken in Sweden and parts of Finland. The Swedish language was used in official records of Finland until the end of the 1800s.

Language Characteristics

Variant Forms of Words

In Swedish, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries— married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. Also, vowels sometimes have diacritical marks in different forms of the same word. Note the following examples:

man mannen män männen

man the man men the men

yrke yrket yrken yrkena

profession the profession professions the professions

Alphabetical Order

Written Swedish has three letters not found in English: Å (å), Ä (ä), and Ö (ö). Alphabetically, these letters come after z. Swedish dictionaries, indexes, the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog, and this word list use the following alphabetical order:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z å ä ö

Spelling

Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. The following spelling variations are common:

ä i j k t v tj sk s

used for used for used for used for used for used for used for used for used for

e j g, gj, hj, lj, dj ck, ch, g, gg, c, q d, th, tt hv, fv, ffv, f, w k, kj, ch skj, sch, sj, stj ss, c, z

Examples:

änka mjölnare kärr

spelled as spelled as spelled as

enka miölnare tjärr

Additional Resources

This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Swedish-English dictionary. Several Swedish-English dictionaries are available at the Family History Library. These are in the Scandinavian collection. Their call numbers begin with 439.7321.

The following dictionary is also available on microfilm for use in Family History Centers:

• Ernolv, Carl. Svensk-Engelsk Ordbok [Swedish-English Dictionary]. Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget Norstedts, 1947. (FHL film 1,124,531 item 12).
• Björkman, C.G. Svensk-Englesk Ordbok [Swedish- English Dictionary]. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt, 1889. (FHL film 1,224,734). Swedish spelling was reformed in 1906. Since this dictionary was written in 1889, it shows words as they were spelled before 1906.

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject Search of the Family History Library Catalog under SWEDISH LANGUAGE - DICTIONARIES or in the Place Search under SWEDEN - LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES - DICTIONARIES.

Key Words

To find and use specific types of Swedish records, you will need to know some key words in Swedish. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Swedish words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Swedish words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined,and other words used in Swedish records to indicate marriage.

English banns birth burial child christening clerical survey confirmation death father female household, examination roll husband index male marriage military mother moving in moving out name, given name, surname parents parish probate wife year

Swedish lysning födda, födde, född, födelse begravning barn döpta, döpte, döpt, döpelse, dop husförhörslängd konfirmation döda, döde, död, avliden, avsomna far, fader kvinnkjön, kvinna husförhörslängd, förhör man, make register mankjön, man vigda, vigde, vigd, vigsel, gift, gifte, giftermål, bröllop, brudfolk militär, soldat mor, moder inflyttning utflyttning förnamn efternamn föräldrar socken, församling, kommun boupptekning hustru, maka år

Numbers

In Swedish genealogical sources numbers are occasionally written out. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 1000

Cardinal noll en, ett två tre fyra fem sex sju åtta nio tio elva tolv tretton fjorton femton sexton sjutton aderton, arton nitton tjugo tjugoen/ett tjugotvå tjugotre tjugofyra tjugofem tjugosex tjugosju tjugoåtta tjugonio trettio trettioen/ett fyrtio femtio sextio sjuttio åttio nittio ett/en hundra två hundra ett/en tusen

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st 40th 50th 60th 70th 80th 90th 100th 200th 1000th

Ordinal   första andra tredje fjärde femte sjätte sjunde åttonde nionde tionde elfte tolfte trettonde fjortonde femtonde sextonde sjuttonde adertonde nittonde tjugonde tjugoförsta tjugoandra tjugotredje tjugofjärde tjugofemte tjugosjätte tjugosjunde tjugoåttonde tjugonionde trettionde trettioförsta fyrtionde femtionde sextionde sjuttionde åttionde nittionde en/ett hundrade två hundrade en/ett tusende