The five plural groups
Each Swedish noun belongs to one of five 'declensions' — fancy word for plural patterns. Here they are, from most to least common.
| Group | Ending | Singular → Plural | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -or | en flicka → flickor | girl → girls |
| 2 | -ar | en bil → bilar | car → cars |
| 3 | -er | en telefon → telefoner | phone → phones |
| 4 | -n | ett äpple → äpplen | apple → apples |
| 5 | — (none) | ett barn → barn | child → children |
How to guess the right group
You can't always predict, but these rules of thumb cover most cases.
| If the noun… | Plural ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| is an en-word ending in -a | -or (drop the -a) | lampa → lampor |
| is an en-word ending in consonant | -ar (usually) | hund → hundar |
| is a loanword or ends in a stressed vowel | -er | telefon → telefoner |
| is an ett-word ending in vowel | -n | äpple → äpplen |
| is an ett-word ending in consonant | no change | barn → barn |
💡
Group 5 (no change) is common for ett-words that end in a consonant. 'Ett barn, två barn' — just like English 'one sheep, two sheep'.
Definite plurals
Just like the singular definite, plurals also get a suffix to mean 'the'. The definite plural endings are -na (groups 1-3) and -en or -a (groups 4-5).
flickor → flickorna
girls → the girls
bilar → bilarna
cars → the cars
barn → barnen
children → the children
Practice
Test yourself — 6 quick exercises on this topic.
1 of 6
Fill in the blank:
en flicka → två ___