Learn Swedish
Swedish grammar is small and familiar, and almost the whole difficulty of the language sits in a handful of sounds — two that English does not have at all, one of which hides behind five different spellings. iLexiBox front-loads exactly those, because a learner who has them has removed most of what makes Swedish hard to say and, more to the point, hard to hear.
Start at the alphabet
The Swedish on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 475 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Swedish voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.
- 29letters
- 10digits
- 16pronunciation rules
- 300core words
- 60everyday phrases
- 60sentences
Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the on-ramp teaches them:
- sju — the sj-sound is the one sound Swedish has that English simply does not: a soft breathy rush made far back in the mouth, with the lips rounded. It hides behind five spellings — sj, skj, stj, sk before a front vowel, and the -ti- of -tion. There is nothing to compare it to; copy it off the audio.station — station
- tjugo — the tj-sound is a different, lighter one: start from the “ch” of “cheer”, take the “t” off the front and let what is left hiss. Spelled tj, kj, or k before e, i, y, ä, ö.köpa — to buy
- gata / göra — g has two lives, decided entirely by the letter that follows it: a hard “g” before a, o, u, å and consonants, a plain “y” before e, i, y, ä, ögärna — gladly
Your first Swedish phrases
The first phrase and sentence cards of the on-ramp, each spoken in a recorded voice:
- Hur mår du? hewr MOHR dew — how are you?
- Jag mår bra, tack. yah mohr BRAH, tack — I’m fine, thank you
- Vad heter du? vahd HAY-ter dew — what is your name?
- Jag är student. yah air stew-DENT — I am a student.
- Jag heter Thomas. yah HAY-ter TOO-mas — My name is Thomas.
Then material that does not run out
Above the on-ramp sit the practice path (A1 to C2), Make a text at your level and the album: more than 2,700 photographs, each captioned and spoken in Swedish. Swedish has practice and tools, not lessons — the only course on iLexiBox is the full English course (how each part works).
What Swedish actually costs a beginner
The sj-sound is a soft breathy rush made far back in the mouth with the lips rounded; there is nothing in English to compare it to, and it is written sj, skj, stj, sk before a front vowel, and as the -ti- of station. The tj-sound is a different and lighter one. And g leads two lives decided entirely by the letter after it: hard before a, o, u and å, a plain y before e, i, y, ä and ö. Beyond those, Swedish is pitch-accented, so anden is the duck or the spirit according to melody alone. All of it is copied off a recorded Swedish voice.
The full English course, A1–C1 →