Subject and object forms
Like English 'I' vs 'me', Swedish pronouns change form depending on whether they're the subject or object of the sentence.
| Person | Subject | Object | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | jag | mig | I / me |
| 2nd singular | du | dig | you / you |
| 3rd sing. (masc.) | han | honom | he / him |
| 3rd sing. (fem.) | hon | henne | she / her |
| 3rd sing. (neutral) | hen | hen | they (singular) / them |
| 3rd sing. (en-word) | den | den | it |
| 3rd sing. (ett-word) | det | det | it |
| 1st plural | vi | oss | we / us |
| 2nd plural | ni | er | you / you |
| 3rd plural | de (dom) | dem (dom) | they / them |
'De' and 'dem' are both pronounced 'dom' in spoken Swedish. Many Swedes even write 'dom' informally.
Den vs det
When referring to a thing (not a person), use 'den' for en-words and 'det' for ett-words. This is one more reason to learn noun genders!
Var är bilen? Den är utanför.
Where's the car? It's outside.
Var är huset? Det är där borta.
Where's the house? It's over there.
Hen — the gender-neutral pronoun
'Hen' was proposed in the 1960s and entered mainstream use around 2012. It's used when the person's gender is unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary. It was added to the official Swedish dictionary (SAOL) in 2015.
Hen kommer snart.
They (singular) will come soon.
Jag träffade min nya chef. Hen verkar trevlig.
I met my new boss. They seem nice.
Practice
Test yourself — 6 quick exercises on this topic.
1 of 6
Fill in the blank:
Vi träffade ___. (them)