Soft vowels change the letter before them
Before a soft vowel (e i y ä ö), the letters k, g and sk change sound.
k · g · skletter
e i y ä ösoft vowel
Swedish vowels come in two groups. Hard: a o u å. Soft: e i y ä ö.
k turns soft, close to the ch in “cheap”: köpa, kyrka.
g sounds like the y in “yes”: göra, Göteborg.
sk becomes the breathy sj-sound: skina.
Before a hard vowel they stay hard: katt, gata, skola.
| Swedish | English | |
|---|---|---|
| katt | cat (hard k) | |
| kyrka | church (soft k) | |
| köpa | to buy (soft k) | |
| göra | to do (g like y) | |
| sju | seven (sj-sound) |
Watch out
Göteborg with a hard g, as in “go”“Yöteborj”: both g’s soft
Words borrowed from other languages don’t always follow the rule: kiosk is said both with a soft and a hard k, and kex, keps and kille keep a hard k.