Product Description
This compact volume offers an integrated guide to the major grammatical concepts needed for writing and speaking Swedish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

This is an excellent and essential guide to learning Swedish
I am so pleased with this book. I know I'll keep it and refer to it
for a long time. It is so well put together. It's clear and concise
and really does teach you the essential rules of Swedish grammar
by explaining things and then giving examples. You can open it up
whenever you have even just a few minutes to spare, and you will learn
something new every time.

When you go from curiosity about a language to beginning to study it
seriously, you need good reference books like this. These days the
internet is very helpful for doing research on just about anything,
and there's a lot of good sites that help with language learning,
but good luck finding this kind of information there. This book will
give you the basic framework to understand how sentences are put together
and will take you past memorizing words and phrases. It will teach
you what you need to know to begin communicating in the language,
and will nicely fill in the gaps of your knowledge of Swedish from
other sources.

If you want to learn Swedish, you simply cannot go wrong with this book!

Extremely Helpful and Easy to Understand
(written by my thirteen-year-old daughter)
When I was 12 years old I decided that I wanted to learn Swedish. Since Swedish was going to be my first foreign language and I was learning it by myself, I figured that I should spend my money wisely and only buy a few items. Along with a Swedish-English/engelsk-svensk Dictionary and a book on conjugating Swedish verbs, I bought this. I'd say that if I had to choose only one of those three items to buy, it would be this one because it explained the grammar of all sorts in a manner that even a 12-year-old could understand.. When first I decided that I wanted to learn Swedish I read up on it and learned a bit about its rules. I was especially daunted by the prospect of learning the definite and plural forms of the word, which confused me to no end. However when I read this book I understood it perfectly, along with other things that confused me, like "rolig", "roligt", and "roliga", for example.
I have had this book for a little over one year, and I have read it through, and still go back sometimes to refresh myself. I must say that I do not regret buying this book!
(By the way, its size made it perfect for carrying around---many a morning before school I spent reading this book throughout last year.)
My only woe is that they do not have the same book for Finnish..!

Good book for the money - but poor on poor with on-the-fly pronunciation guidance, and fair on verb conjugation
This book is a pretty good deal for the money, but it seems they tried to pack too much into a small space.Probably makes it a good guide book when traveling because of the size but they could have done much better in creating a comprehensive grammar book for a few more dollars.I would buy it again, but still looking for the mother of all grammar books.From the reviews here, I had thought I found it. It is the best in its price and sized, better than other "essential" grammar books in that category, which is why it is rated so highly.

If you are thinking of investing in the much bally-hooed Rosetta Stone.Save your money.

Rosetta Stone is a nice little "stone" in the building materials and tools of learning a language, but that's all it is, a rough stone at that. More like a glorified giant-sized Sesame Street language program for kids, but to say that is berating Sesame Street a bit, which does a much better job. You still very much need to use grammar books and dictionaries, lesson books, etc. if learning a language from "scratch" and while you are using Rosetta Stone. There are no language-specific built-in appendices, no dictionary, no language translation guides of any kind, no footnotes pointing out grammatical anomalies etc. (of which there are many in every language.)Nothing.

There are just phrases in text accompanied by the audio (if you select audio accompaniment) in Swedish, to fit the pictures, and you have to guess, either, or, depending on your choice lesson. But none of these many preferences is more than just a quiz game. THERE ARE NO OTHER LEARNING TOOLS.

It seems the creators/programmers of Rosetta Stone made the same basic program template of photo pictures for all language suites they sell, and they just changed the voice and text for the different languages. What a money-maker! And what a rip-off!I would bet they spent more on marketing Rosetta Stone than creating it.

Check out my review on Rosetta Stone's Swedish package.

Best foreign language reference I've ever had
I have studied many languages over the years and this is the best language reference book I've ever had. It is well organized, concise and easy to follow for beginners.I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to learn Swedish.

Best Svenska Grammatik out there!
This is the best Swedish grammar book out there. It is very concise, and skips all the nonsense and difficult to understand wording. It has everything you need to know, and is not a heavy, hard to handle book.

I had the older version that my Uncle who married a Swedish woman gave me, and I loved it so much, but it was falling apart from his usage (which was many years ago), so I had to buy myself a new one and was so glad I did.

Great great book. ... Read more

Product Description
This introduction to the native language of Sweden features 10 lessons which are ideal for both classroom use and self-study. Each chapter includes dialogues, basic vocabulary and easy-to-follow discussions of grammar. The book also comes with exercises, cultural information and a brief comparison of Swedish and English. The two 80-minute audio CDs feature dialogue, vocabulary and sections spoken by native speakers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Be prepared to start off slowly: w/ phrases rather than learning how to use the language
Many beginners' textbooks have you out and speaking right away: learning greetings, introductions, asking for help or the time, talking about your age, telling your phone number, where you are from etc. and learning to create your own sentences and learning to express yourself all from lesson one. This book doesn't do that.

As I am soon to be moving to Sweden I am interested in learning to create my own sentences, state my ideas and introduce myself. What I received in this book in lesson one was how to get along as a tourist: go through the airport and taught phrases rather than being taught how to construct sentences and express ideas from the beginning. If I wanted a phrase book I would have not been disappointed. Thank goodness it slowly gets somewhat better. This is no beginners' textbook but rather a large phrase book with insufficient grammar explanations and a CD so far. But I will stick with it.

Cons:
*The progression of grammar seems very incoherent when compared against the dialog. The grammar explanations are insufficient. The writer followed a list of scenarios such as getting through immigration and did not have a good layout for how to teach grammar. (I suggest buying a grammar guide)

*The practice after each section is exceedingly sparse. There is almost no practice at all. You have two pages of sentences to translate or fill in the blanks. There is no listening comprehension or additional readings, or fun activities.

*The dialogs are not useful and are sadly the focus of the entire chapter. It makes for an unimaginative, dull learning experience so far.

*And what I consider the biggest fault of all: you are not taught how to use Swedish but rather taught dialogs and vocabulary.

Pros:
*There is an audio CD, with the recorded dialogs and the vocabulary list and useful expressions.
*Culture, etymology and sections on geography at the end of the chapters.
*Better than some of the other Swedish language books that I have found.
*The book does try to cover some useful areas like getting a flight, getting a hair cut etc.

Note:
The amount of initial vocabulary is not as large amount as led to believe from other reviews but average when compared to say my Japanese beginner's textbook.I will try to continue on with this book, I am still on the first half (starting lesson four). There are things I can learn from it but I hope for better language instruction books once I am in Sweden. It would be helpful to buy a grammar book (which helped be greatly) and use other sources for your studies to keep it fun like listening to music or watching Swedish tv shows (try svt.se to start). And Good Luck!!

Not for "Beginners"
While I know a bit of Swedish already, I found this book too advanced for me! Only get this book if you are already confident with grammar and pronunciation. There are no pauses between the audio speakers to allow for self practice and they speak very fast. Also, they only say the swedish version; they do not translate in the audio into English which makes it difficult to use for long commutes in the car (my original intention for the CDs). However, the product is good if you are intermediate Swedish speaker looking for supplements. It shipped to me in mint condition in a week or less and the CDs had never even been opened! Unfortunately I will still need to seek out another book aimed at the basic fundamentals of Swedish. I even have considerable knowledge of Spanish and German, and while it does help, the book should focus only English and Swedish, instead of making multiple references to other languages.

Good way to start
This guide is a great way to start learning Swedish. It uses some a lot of variety and scenarios to make the lessons interesting. By the time you are done with the book, you will have a pretty good understanding of the basics, and quite a decent vocabulary. And as a bonus, you get a little history of the country and language.

The downside is that there are a few mistakes in the text, and a few mistakes on the cds - not many, but more than there should be. This was very confusing and could cause problems for total beginners. Luckily, I have a Swedish wife who I could double check with!

Overall, this was a good beginners guide, especially for the price. I would recommend it.

CD broke
The CD was broken in the first book shipped, so could not rip all tracks to my ipod.
When Amazon shipped the second book, the new CD was broken too.
Fortunately, all tracks could be retrieved from both CDs..

Yes, not an ideal beginner's book & CDs - but nice pronunciation guides in vocabulary and lots of grammar and syntax hints
This is not an ideal primer textbook for teaching one's self Swedish.I have yet to find one. Rosetta stone is a guessing game too and doesn't teach much of anything.

The "dialogue" sections are useless pedogogically. The CDs are nothing really, just a recording of the dialogue sections, just people rambling through some Swedish conversation way too fast for a beginner to get anything out of it.It all just goes over your head.

I wish I could find a reader the 5 and 6 year-old Swedish children use, LOL. That would work great.Like "Run, Dick, Run," and"See Sally run..." etc. in Swedish.There are some grammatical hints and stuff in this book that helps and lot of tips, but way too much of those useless "dialogues," and nothing is approached in an evolutionary fashion, it's just all over the map.Would I buy it again? Probably.The paucity of good textbooks and pronunciation guides for Swedish means you have to buy everything you can, but this book is far from a beginner's panacea.

One last note, listen to the siren song about the much bally-hooed Rosetta Stone. That's exactly what it is, a puzzle with absolutely not aids, guides, tools, etc.

Rosetta Stone is a nice little "stone" in the building materials and tools of learning a language, but that's all it is, a rough stone at that. More like a glorified giant-sized Sesame Street language program for kids, but to say that is berating Sesame Street a bit, which does a much better job. You still very much need to use grammar books and dictionaries, lesson books, etc. if learning a language from "scratch" and while you are using Rosetta Stone. There are no language-specific built-in appendices, no dictionary, no language translation guides of any kind, no footnotes pointing out grammatical anomalies etc. (of which there are many in every language.)Nothing.

There are just phrases in text accompanied by the audio (if you select audio accompaniment) in Swedish, to fit the pictures, and you have to guess, either, or, depending on your choice lesson. But none of these many preferences is more than just a quiz game. THERE ARE NO OTHER LEARNING TOOLS.

It seems the creators/programmers of Rosetta Stone made the same basic program template of photo pictures for all language suites they sell, and they just changed the voice and text for the different languages. What a money-maker! And what a rip-off!I would bet they spent more on marketing this product than creating it. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

outdated
This book is mini and light in weight, but it was first published in the 80's, so a lot of the phrases are kindda out dated. I bought this book when I went to study in Sweden for 2 years, and that is not how young people speak anymore. But the vocabulary is still usefull.

Helpful ?Not so much
Myself being a second (father's side)and third generation (mother's side)Swedish-American,I find the suggested pronunciations to be inaccurate. Some of the sounds described in this book are not as my parents tried to teach me.

Disappointed in Dallas.

Swedish language help
This is a good book for what it is intended for.The only thing against it is that we didn't need it in Sweden.Nearly everyone speaks English, at least to some extent, even in the small fishing villages along the coast.The only time we didn't find someone that could speak Englishat a restaurant, we just guessed and were able to order anyway.Ended up with Lasagna, which isn't exactly Swedish fare, but the word they had on the menu looked similar, so we guessed well!

Small but powerful
A good way to get familiar with Swedish if you are a beginner.This book contains practical phrases for a variety of situations. The pronunication of every word is written underneath each phrase phonetically, which is especially helpful/needed when learning Swedish.A handy little book, and even if you end up using it as a coaster you still haven't lost at this price!

Rather outdated Swedish
I suspect it has been some time since the author visited Sweden or even watched a Swedish movie. A quick glance through the phrases and translations gives me the feel of reading a novel from the 1940s. Using these phrases in Sweden will make you seem either comical or positively moronic.
A few examples: Hardly anyone uses the antiquated polite form "Ni" any more. It might even be taken as an insult. This book uses it consistently. No Swede would ever say "Var så god och ge mig resväskan", which translates to something like "You had better give me that suitcase". The translation of "may I introduce miss Svensson" will sound hilarious in modern Sweden, unless you are auditioning for a part in a period movie from the second world war. If you are in search of an adaptor and ask for a "transformator" as suggested in this book, you would probably just get funny looks.
Surely it must be possible to come up with something better than this?
(For your information, I am Swedish.) ... Read more

Product Description
Verbs are presented alphabetically, one verb to a page, and shown in all of their forms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

There's a better book to get
I purchased this booking thinking it would give me a good overview of Swedish verbs. It's a good book but way to complicated, especially if you are a beginner. I recommend getting the book called 2,000 Common Swedish Verbs, by David Hensleigh. This book is easy and has more verbs. If you have ever taken a professional Swedish class it is in the same format that the teachers want to see you put your verbs.

Very useful
As above this book is really very useful. It was exactly what I was searching for.
It would have been better if it contained more than 201 verbs.

GREAT
This is the only Swedish verb book similar to the 501 series (except this is a 201, or course) on Swedish verbs that I have been able to find. It is a very helpful book for Swedish. I recommend any new student of Swedish buy this with the Essentials of Swedish Grammar book by Passport Books (NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group). Simply great. This helped me a lot.

The Only Issue
Of course, who could live without this book while studying Swedish? Full conj and everything! The only issue I have with this book is that there are only 201 and not 501 verbs like in the other books by Barrons.

Excellent book
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning Swedish.The authors do a wonderful job in explaining different aspects of swedish verbs and their declensions.Also, the part on strong verbs is excellent.Instead of telling you to memorize a bunch of rules, they help you see the pattern.They also do well explaining archaic verb forms, which is good for anyone who wants to read older historical texts and maybe even family relics from a century ago. This is a great book and you won't regret getting it! ... Read more

Product Description
BERLITZ SWEDISH IN 60 MINUTES

Start speaking Swedish in just one hour!


Get a quick start to learning basic everyday Swedish words with an all-audio course including more than 250 essential words and phrases needed to start communicating no textbook needed and no grammar rules to learn! Repetition helps learners retain what they ve heard and a 16-page booklet with audio script is provided for those who want to follow along as they listen.


Start Speaking Today:

*1 audio CD (1 hour)

*Completely portable--compatible with your iPod® or other MP3 player

*Learn by listening to native speakers

*Essential everyday language

*Reference booklet included
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Basic phrases most Swedes know in English
Knowing how to say "hi" and "thank you" is a simple courtesy when visiting another country. This CD will give you that in 20 minutes.

Beyond that, you probably won't need much Swedish. Within the major tourist districts, English is a mandatory job skill for those working there.

I was surprised at the ubiquity of English in Scandinavia. Any working-class Swede in a small-town train station can give you directions in good English. Only immigrants to Sweden have any trouble conversing in English, and that includes some of the taxi drivers.

For those situations, you probably want an actual phrasebook. The small reference guide that comes with the CD is not sufficient (nor intended) for those situations.

"iPod compatible" means you can import the CD through iTunes and sync the tracks to your device, like ripping any music CD, if you're comfortable with that process. The CD does not contain MP3s.

Swedish in 60 mintues
Helpful, but too confusing for me before I went.Listened to it after I came back and I could follow it better.Nicely enough, everyone there speaks English, so I didn't really need it.Swedish pronunciation is a bit difficult, and this was a bit of help, although actual pronunciation and phonetic display didn't always match exactly.

Good basic CD to learn basic phrases
I am in the process of learning Swedish and although the words on the CD are basic words you would find in a travel book, it shows you how to pronounce them.I have found that the pronounciation in Swedish is difficult, so this CD helps you with basic phrases and words.I was able to download it onto my IPOD so now I can listen to it on the go. ... Read more

Product Description

From Cantonese to Thai, Gaelic to Modern Persian, learning the languages of the world isattainable for any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Complete LanguageCourses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses.

All Teach Yourself Complete Language Courses include:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, andexercises
• Step-by-step guides to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• A bilingual glossary
• A clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Fully updated audio recordings on CD foreasy access and review

Customer Reviews (18)

NOT for beginners by any stretch of the imagination
Let me begin this first by explaining my experience with the Swedish language.
Before attempting to learn Swedish I had already had a very high level of knowledge in Bokmål Norwegian (which is probably the closest language in the world to Swedish) due to the fact that I had a great friend from the area and wanted to intigrate myself into the culture of Scandinavia. Obviously, I developed a great respect and fascination for Scandinavia (as anybody would) and was very excited to learn Swedish from this series, as this was the only Scandinavian language taught at my university, and it was going to be a couple of years before I had the time in my schedule to enroll in this class.
I used Teach Yourself Norwegian (from the same series as the book in question) and was very pleased. Each of the 16 chapters contained maybe 100 or so new words to learn, and the grammar was clearly explained while not going overboard and overdoing it. By the end of the course I could say comfortably that I was well of my way to fluency.
Teach Yourself Swedish provides over 200 new words and idiomatic phrases in each of its 18 chapters. Obviously learning a new language is going to take some time, however this was too much. And the words were not explained clearly at all in tearms of inflexion and case. And I also feel that the words introduced early on were inappropriate for the level (for example, in chapter three you learn to say "Light travels at a speed of...kilometers per hour." and "The distance to the moon is...kilometers.") For almost every new word or phrase present, I was forced to consult a dictionary for full information about how the word was used/constructed. It took me a good two and a half years to finish this course, whereas Teach Yourself Norwegian took me maybe a little over 8 months.
Perhaps it was my own fault in thinking that Swedish was be fairly simple after learning Norwegian, but I feel that it still should be. This book I feel is aimed towards linguists who possess full comprehension of grammatical structure, yet at the same time there is huge lack as far the structure of words are concerned.
I have not tried other products out there, and I realize that there are VERY few geared towards learning any of the Scandinavian languages, but if you choose to work with this book, be prepared to put A LOT of time and effort into it and have a good dictionary at the ready!!!
Overall, the book was overdone, unorganized, and difficult to use.

A Very Helpful Course
Teach Yourself Swedish seems like an at-home or on-the-go class. It helps build vocabulary rather fast for me, although I sometimes have to look up verb infinitives elsewhere. I like how Vera Croghan goes through dialogues and some activities on the CDs. I think this course is for those that want to learn Swedish or develop fluency in that language.

LOVE IT
Yes, this is for people who have at least 2 languages under their belts! AND since I am fluent in English and German, Swedish is very easy for me to grasp!!! I FIND THIS SERIES IS FOR PEOPLE who are more advanced in language studies and really want to learn (or die trying)! FYI, I have also used this series for Italian and Portuguese all with great success!!!
The trick is to learn the words!!!

Not for Absolute Beginners
From page 1 of the introduction, Teach Yourself Swedish claims to be for absolute beginners, however I would disagree. There is nothing wrong with fast pace dialogs once you already have the basics of pronunciation down but this book never helps with that.

You don't get word by word pronunciation of the vocabulary or phrases leaving you in a bit of a dazed in a sea of sounds trying to pull apart the words to be able to later form your own sentence.

From chapter one, dialog one the pace is pretty fast for someone with no previous knowledge of even one word of Swedish. The progression of the grammar points leaves a lot to be desired. Basically it is a poor or rather frustrating course if you are an absolute beginner.

I am glad I didn't buy this book but rather rented it from the library.But I would say that it would be great for someone with previous knowledge of Swedish because the dialogs would be good listening practice.

To advance
This is far to advance for a beginners level. No help at all if your a beginner. I recommend Pimslers... ... Read more

Product Description

This third edition of Colloquial Swedish has been revised and updated to make learning Swedish easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, this clear, accurate course delivers a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Swedish.

The best choice in personal language learning, this third edition features:

• new texts and dialogues throughout
• links to websites about Sweden, its history, society and culture
• clear grammar notes and summary.

No prior knowledge of the language is required, and by the end of this rewarding course students will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Swedish in a broad range of everyday situations. Audio material recorded by native speakers is available to purchase on CD or in MP3 format to complement the book. This will help you perfect your pronunciation, listening and speaking skills.

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent Transaction
The book arrived in perfect condition.Originally the expected arrival date was about three weeks, but it arrived in about one week.

Very Important
The way the book is presented on amazon is very misleading. First it is offered with Colloquial Swedish (Colloquial Series (Book Only)) (Paperback) at the price of 68 $ and by being so you might thing it is workbook to the first ,offered with the cassettes and the Cd-s. This fact is reinforces when you read the product description: first 344pages, this one 288 pages. YOU are wrong. It is the same book in both cases the difference is that on the second package you receive the cd-s and cassettes, so if you fell for the trick and buy both for 68 $(thinking there are two different products from the same learning package) you would end like me: buying two,identical books. The reason I am not returning the first one is that shipping from Romania to USA is expensive and takes a lot of time so I will have to keep it or try to sell it.

Anyway this particular package priced ad 42$ is quite good and really helps you with your first steps in Swedish. There are 17 chapters focusing on the vocabulary you would need in various situations from day-to-day life: from introducing yourself to cooking, going on holiday, learning.In every chapter basic grammar issues or rules are discussed.

I am giving this product only 4 stars because I a feel cheated by amazon.

Colloquial Swedish
It came in a very reasonable amount of time, & I have been very pleased with it, I feel I have learned more in a shorter amount of time that with the other much older language program I was using.

Required for class
I purchased this book as it was required for a "Beginners 2" class at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago.It's very informative as far as grammar goes; however, some of the vocabulary is a bit extreme.I'm not sure when I'll use many of the words that I'm being exposed to.There is a CD that's available; however, I was not offered it when I purchased the book.I think that it should be "suggested" to get the CD as well, which helps a lot for pronunciation.Love the class and looking forward to surprising some relatives with my improved Swedish!

Excellent selection
I have bought this book based on the review of the users. It appeared to be a really nice book, although I didnt know that it also has audio cds that I had to buy separately, this is a really good book. All the explanations are detailed with examples and pronunciations.I would recommend you to buy this book if you are a beginner who wanted to learn swedish. ... Read more

Product Description
This grammar-reader is based on almost twenty years' experience of teaching beginners the Swedish language and is reassuringly practical in approach. Miss Hird's aims are threefold: to provide a compromise between the traditional grammar-readers and the new textbooks which are not designed for beginners outside Sweden; to supply grammatical information and exercises and reading texts together for ease of reference; and to stimulate the student's interest in Swedish life, institutions and culture. The grammar part of the book is in seventeen lessons, each comprising a text in Swedish which Miss Hird has specially composed to include useful vocabulary and graded grammatical points upon which exercises (including translation exercises) are set for practice. The central theme of the texts is Stockholm, and attractive drawings illustrate it. To help the student, there is a full vocabulary list covering all the lessons, a brief summary of Swedish grammar, a glossary of grammatical terms, a check list of irregular verbs and a comprehensive index of the grammatical points covered in the book. In the reader part of the book, the texts chosen range from a short play by Strindberg to a sketch by Stig Claesson, one of Sweden's most popular contemporary authors. Each text is preceded by a short biographical and literary introduction and is followed by questions designed to test the student's comprehension and to stimulate his appreciation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Learn written Swedish!
This is the best introductory course (not reference grammar!) to learn written Swedish on your own (I don't think this book is appropriate for classroom use, although it can be used in class as a secondary material). It's NOT intended to learn spoken Swedish, but you can use it in conjunction with other spoken Swedish courses. It covers succinctly all the essential grammar points in a very pedagogically way, illustrating them with a small text and complementing the lessons with several exercises. While it doesn't include any answer key, the grammar points and the vocabulary needed to solve them are all included in the Swedish texts, so they are not very difficult to go through. As I said, I don't know if it can be used in a classroom - I think it's best to use it on your own.

I recommend you to have a dictionary handy, as the vocabulary lists are divided between the grammar and the reader parts - so if you are stuck with a word on the reader texts that's not found in the reader's vocabulary, you need to go back to the other list. I think that's the only drawback of the book.

I'm not a native English speaker, but I've found this book very useful and easy to use. I'm now only halfway through the book, and I can read some Strindberg already (with a good dictionary at hand).

An excellent introductory reader
This book's format exposes the reader to Swedish texts which, with each passing chapter, expand and become more difficult (at the end you will be reading Sweden's most famous author, Strindberg).In each chapter's text, new grammatical facets are introduced;immediately following is a word list for that chapter, a grammar lesson involving the new material, and exercises.The progression in complexity of the texts is well-paced and the exercises are thoughtful and helpful in retaining the grammatical points.The reading material is entertaining (particularly the later chapters of the grammar portion) and diverse.Lots of fun Swedish songs, poems and history.

While the most important grammatical rules of Swedish are covered, they are spread throughout the book. I therefore found it helpful to have a pure grammar book for reference as well.This book also includes a very helpful list of irregular verb conjugations.My copy of this book is thoroughly worn; by reading it carefully your Swedish will progress very quickly.A must-read for English speakers starting Swedish.

Still the best way to begin learning Swedish on your own
When I began graduate studies in Helsingfors a few years ago, I was keen on learning Swedish. But as a native English speaker, it was difficult to find the right textbook for tackling the language on my own. The popular SVENSKA UTIFRÅN is meant for classroom use, while the Swedish volume in the Teach Yourself series is an absolute disaster. I was fortunate to discover Gladys Hird's SWEDISH: An elementary grammar-reader, which proved immensely productive for learning Swedish on my own. This textbook was published in 1977 and was long difficult to come by, but thankfully it saw a recent reprinting in paperback. Get it!

Basic Swedish grammar and lexicon is spread out over 16 lessons in a supremely easy to digest fashion. The text that introduces each lesson often tells the reader something about Swedish life and culture--useful for someone studying abroad without daily contact with the country (like me, over in Finland). I found the exercises at the end of each lesson sufficient for judging whether I had internalized the new material. There's no answer key, but you can't really learn Swedish without some native speaker with whom you can apply what you've learned, so have them check your exercises. Swedish has rather idiosyncratic pronunciation, so you'll want to find some audio material, even if it's just a few listens of whatever is in your local library, but if you are just starting out you don't need to supplement Hird's work with any other textbook.

The Swedish reader portion consists of five passages, i) August Strindberg's chamber play Den Starkare, ii) a review of Den Starkare by the TV critic of Dagens Nyheter, iii) "Diskaren" by Per Olof Sunman, iv) "Slå följe" by Stig Claesson, and v) "Våra vanligaste hämningar: Cary Grant-komplexet" by Red Top. These are a bit old now, but except for the Strindberg still contemporary Swedish, and you'll find that the textbook prepares you very well for them.

Even if Hird's course is priced rather highly (to be expected of Cambridge University Press), this may well be the best option for the autodidact.

Not what I expected
While I will take any Swedish book I can get, since there are not very many, this book was not what I expected. It is old and not organized well... It is for very early beginners, and was not very difficult at all.

However, it was good in some aspects. It has some exercises for you to do and such. It is worth a buy, but just keep in mind it is for very early beginners, and it is not as concise as Essentials of Swedish Grammar, which is the best book I have seen for Swedish Grammar.

Although a tad expensive, worth the price!
I was a bit surprised to see that a paperback would sell for so much, $35?! But as I was determined to learn Swedish, and the reviews were good, so I went for it. Glad I did! I'm on chapter 5 so far, and doing good. The only thing I'm having trouble with is the plural form (though not the book's fault; there just aren't any completely set rules for determining the correct form, it's mostly memorization). Each chapter begins with a short story in Swedish, and a vocab list is included shortly after. It also includes in parenthesis which group each noun belongs to (en or ett). I find it helpful to highlight each different noun according to it's gender (I do blue for "ett" and orange for "en", but that's up to you). It then moves on to key grammar points, and what I love the most are the exercises at the end of each chapter. The last having to translate a paragraph into Swedish (and everything you need to know for how to do this is talked about, so it isn't hard, and you're like, "hey, I can really do this!"). And at the end of the book there are several short stories, each a few pages long. Which is nice to have something "real" to read once you've mastered a decent amount of Swedish.

And since there's no CD included with this, I would recommend the Teach Yourself series Swedish version for pronunciation (comes with CDs). I'd also advice getting Åke Viberg's "Swedish: Essential's of Grammar". I especially find it helpful with my issues of the plural definite and indefinite forms, but it pretty much covers any trouble you may have. ... Read more

Product Description
Concise guide focuses on simple everyday communication. Coverage includes vocabulary building, word order, forming negative sentences and questions, making comparisons, expressing possession, detailed study of the parts of speech. Also, useful expressions and a glossary of grammatical terms. Ideal for self-study or as adjunct to language course. Introduction.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent resource for Swedish Grammar
This tiny volume has everything you really need to understand Swedish grammar. It covers all the aspects briefly, and in no more complicated terms than a textbook (which are hard to find for Swedish for some reason). There are usage examples, irregular verb tables, and some details on Swedish punctuation. Funny how only one reviewer so far has found the definitions of grammatical terms in the back. As for the 'molecular structure' review, pay that foolishness no mind. If you are looking for a textbook, look elsewhere (and let me know if you find a good one). This is a reference book, and a very good one.

Don't listen to the low reviewers
This book is excellent. It goes over every bit of Swedish grammar, with examples. The book is logically arranged for easy reference, with separate sections for nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, etc. To the one reviewer who said knowledge of English grammar terms is necessary: no, it isn't. The book has a glossary in the back that explains any linguistic terms used, from the most advanced to ones as simple as "noun".

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn Swedish. Linguophiles will love the presentation, but anyone can appreciate a quick course that presents all you need to know about Swedish grammar in under 100 pages.

Need to know the English terms.
This book is useful if you know the English terms for the parts of speech.If you can speak, read, and write in English but can't easily define every part of speech, don't get this book.If you are looking for a book that compares English and Swedish or even gives you DECENT examples--look elsewhere.This book is quick and dirty and only for those who love to diagram sentences.

Useless
If you wanted to learn how to bake bread, would you:

a-Go to a world-reknown biochemical expert to get a careful explanation of the molecular structure of wheat and the changes it undergoes when exposed to heat?

or

b-Go to a baker and see how he does it?

This book is committed to the notion that the correct answer is a.

Not helpful.

Essential Swedish Grammar
The Essential Swedish Grammar book is quite a compact and useful book. Contains the essential grammars that we need to know for the Swedish language. Good to have one as the reference if u're interested in or studying Swedish language. ... Read more

Product Description
Colloquial Swedish is easy to use and completely vital.Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Swedish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

They're CDs, and they're in Swedish
The audio quality is pretty good, and the talking speed is pretty fast for a beginner once you get to around the third chapter; this can be good or bad depending on your previous experience with language learning.It pretty much follows the accompanying book, so for a review of the content, check out the book's reviews.

Den här är underbar!
Great for visual learners of foreign languages...I like the lessons followed by conversations and stories with vocabulary available for immediate learning. I learn better with this than Rosetta Stone (which also is a good product). Den här är mycket bra för några att lära sig Svenska.

A good book, not so easy though
This is an excellent source... but only if you're a dedicated book worm. I tend to enjoy classroom style texts when it comes to self-instructed language learning. I'm only a beginner when it comes to Swedish, and this book is a little overwhelming without the instructional CDs/Tapes. I recommend you spend a little more, and get the newest edition, and if you're serious about tackling Swedish, go ahead and get the CDs.

It's not a CD-ROM!!
Great CDs with a rich content and very usefull. However, I bought the CDs because in the description it was written "AUDIOBOOK CD-ROM", so I thought it was the electronical version of the paperback, but when I got the CDs I was really surprised that, in fact, they ARE audio CDs and not CD-ROM as mentioned.

Now, I had to buy separately the book.

So, in all, interesting but only audio CDs, not CD-ROMs. Don't get wrong.

this book is great
great way to learn swedish, great resource even for a teenager/kid ... Read more

Product Description
Colloquial Swedish is easy to use and completely vital.Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Swedish. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

They're CDs, and they're in Swedish
The audio quality is pretty good, and the talking speed is pretty fast for a beginner once you get to around the third chapter; this can be good or bad depending on your previous experience with language learning.It pretty much follows the accompanying book, so for a review of the content, check out the book's reviews.

Den här är underbar!
Great for visual learners of foreign languages...I like the lessons followed by conversations and stories with vocabulary available for immediate learning. I learn better with this than Rosetta Stone (which also is a good product). Den här är mycket bra för några att lära sig Svenska.

A good book, not so easy though
This is an excellent source... but only if you're a dedicated book worm. I tend to enjoy classroom style texts when it comes to self-instructed language learning. I'm only a beginner when it comes to Swedish, and this book is a little overwhelming without the instructional CDs/Tapes. I recommend you spend a little more, and get the newest edition, and if you're serious about tackling Swedish, go ahead and get the CDs.

It's not a CD-ROM!!
Great CDs with a rich content and very usefull. However, I bought the CDs because in the description it was written "AUDIOBOOK CD-ROM", so I thought it was the electronical version of the paperback, but when I got the CDs I was really surprised that, in fact, they ARE audio CDs and not CD-ROM as mentioned.

Now, I had to buy separately the book.

So, in all, interesting but only audio CDs, not CD-ROMs. Don't get wrong.

this book is great
great way to learn swedish, great resource even for a teenager/kid ... Read more

Product Description
With its clear layout and format, this dictionary provides practical assistance to students, travellers, business people and others wanting to learn and understand modern Swedish. It includes definitions of technical, scientific and business terms and also features listings of geographical names and irregular verbs and their forms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simple-minded Swedish/English
The only sense in which this dictionary is concise and compact is in the dictionary's functional role: entries converge on having one-worddefinitions. The dictionary could have been compact in a wider sense hadthe type been smaller (it is unnecessarily large) and had the size of thepages been more effectively used (there's lots of white space).If thedictionary had been more space-conscious (given that it isn'tcontent-conscious), then at least it would have had the virtue of beingeasy to carry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Truly Spoken Swedish
This book is targeting the conversational skills and listening comprehension using 8 cassettes as stated in the book. If you go for the new SFI course with 15 CDs I believe it will be the same material as in this book. I have only purchased the book, which gives excellent account of everyday Swedish, presented in a dialog covering a large variety of situations. The book has 16 units: Getting around; Meeting people; Family and occupation; Seeing sights; A place to live; True and false; At the office; Shopping for clothes; Eating in a restaurant; Getting ready for an Evening Out;
(Nations, Languages and Nationalities);Social Gathering; Travel to a land; On the island ön; Holidays and tradition; Sweden today. The most important in using this book is to get someone who speaks the language (otherwise you have to buy cassettes or CDs). Even if your Swedish friend is not a teach, the book is so well thought that you just have to follow the given material and learn idiomatic expressions (Swedish patterns) so that you can use them naturally on the spot.
Ideally you need an instructor, but even recorded dialogs repeated with a pause in between for you to pronounce the phrases after the speaker is still a less painful method of memorising the patterns. This course is similar to an older course "Spoken Swedish" by William R. Van Buskirk and Fritz Frauchiger, which comes on 24 cassettes, huge amount of basic dialogs, the new SFI course is more compact and somewhat reorganised version of "Spoken Swedish", highly recommended, because you get extra examples of every day Swedish with good pronunciation on the tapes and it is less expansive than new Basic SFI course with 15 CDs.
The bottom line is get this book without cassettes if you have a friend who can help you with pronunciation, or go for the largest available course "Spoken Swedish" by spoken languages.

something's missing
The book looks very comprehensive and well written.But when you get the book you discover that it was designed to be used with a set of 8 (or is it 15) cassette tapes or a CD. You might think that they would be included since the book isn't cheap and the publisher is something called Audio-Forum.Unfortunately that's not the case and the tapes are never even mentioned in the item description.If you want the tapes you would need to fork over another $199 and the CD $239.They should at least tell you that the course isn't complete without the necessary tapes and that they're extra.

A must buy
The Comprehensive Program is the ultimate in spoken language learning. For those who want to become proficient in the language of their choice, the Comprehensive programs go beyond the Basic Programs to offer spoken-language fluency. Using the same simple method of interactive self-practice with native speakers, these comprehensive programs provide a complete language learning course. The Comprehensive Program is available in a wide variety of languages and runs through three levels (thirty lessons each) in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. At the end of a full Comprehensive Program listeners will be conducting complete conversations and be well on their way to mastering the language. ... Read more

Product Description

HEAR IT, LEARN IT, SPEAK IT®

What is the Pimsleur® difference?

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Swedish structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Swedish can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or even thousands of words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That same learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,

• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,

• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,

• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without books, written exercises, or drills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Worth every penny!!
I just finished the final lesson in this set and I am very pleased with the results. The hardest thing about learning a new language,for me, is learning to pronounce the words correctly. These cd's are excellent because of the way they clearly break new words down piece by piece, and have you practice them until you can say them automatically. Review is built into every lesson, so by the end of lesson ten, I was able to easily remember the material from the entire course. Also included in this product is a reading booklet so you can compare sounds to the way the words are spelled.
I was surprised and pleased to hear my children picking up some phrases just from being in the car with me while I practiced with the cd's!
My only wish is that Pimsleur would make a "volume 2" set, so that I could continue learning with this method!

a good buy
So far, it's been a great buy. The lessons are fun and easy. I feel like I am learning and more importantly remembering what I've learned. Some of the conversations aren't that practical, but they are not as bad as other reviewers have made them out to be.

Says what it does, does what it says.
Spoken Swedish isn't rocket science. It's a living language with ancient roots. Like learning about new people, there's no quick fix for learning languages. It takes time. Lots of it. Listening well, speaking back. Repetition. No way you can learn an entire language in just a few hours.
So - why am I recommending this set? Well, I'm a linguist. I can get by in most of the countries on this planet."Get by" being the operative phrase here.
This set lets you have an authentic taste of a foreign language - maybe 50 words by the end (plus or minus, don't quote me), and phrases to go with them. That's almost enough to get by, certainly enough to let you know whether or not you want to continue learning that language to its next level.
I've purchased Pimsleur exclusively for this purpose. I've had a glimpse into several languages, Spanish before this latest one. And even after just those first 6 CDs, my Spanish has been enough to astound my housekeeper, who was totally shocked, and then insisted that I must have been taking many lessons without telling her. Well, I was. On my car CD during commutes.
Can't wait until I meet someone from Sweden.

Good start
I'm totally new to Swedish, so I used these CDs to get me started on the language. I listened to them on my way to work every day and learned a lot quickly. My favorite aspects of the teaching technique are the repetition of phrases, the breakdown of words, and the interactive style of the lessons. It feels like you have a personal Swedish tutor working with you one on one. I supplement with Rosetta Stones, which helps build vocabulary, but this program really helps you learn to speak quickly. I recommend this product for beginners.

Great
This is the best language tool i've tried. The pace is much slower than other programs so its easy to absorb the material. The conversation is also much more relevant. Very happy with it ... Read more

Product Description
Berlitz redefines the phrase book with these completely revised and redesigned full-color editions of the world's best-selling collection. Features: More than 8,000 words and phrases arranged by topic for fast and easy communication. Up-to-date language and situations.Easy, effective Berlitz pronunciation system.Comprehensive menu reader.Valuable language and culture tips.New color photos throughout.Conveniently sized for pocket or purse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Helped a lot!
It's a good book for english speaking person, because the phrases are written how a Swed would have said it. Now, if a swedish person are reading it, it all looks all messed up, but it looks very logic for en English speaking person.

GREAT BOOK!
IT'S GOT ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO SAY OR UNDERSTAND ON YOUR TRIP, THE PICTURES AND THE LAYOUT AND THE PAGES ARE VERY NICE, I RECOMMEND IT!

The best for begginers
It is a really useful book for people with no time to learn swedish using the long way. Practical words, phrases, idioms, and expresions. If you only want to communicate accurate in many situations without any idea what the swedish is, This is the right book, the cassete is very interactive. Don't forget you Swedish dicctionary Berlitz also, is really good despite its size. Both, are easy to carry on with you all time.

Usable Pronunciation Guide in Book
Swedish is a very difficult language for Americans to pronounce.It's a double tone language.In other words, you often stress more than one syllable in the same word.This sounds kinda silly to English speakers.You simply cannot look at this book (or any book) and try to speak Swedish.What is good about this book is the pronuniation guide that appears beside each word.This makes it possible that you won't sound silly every time you try to speak Swedish.Once you have been in Sweden and listened to the way they speak, you can use this book's pronunication guides and try to immitate the Swedes.

But, this book is really only for travelers, and travelers don't need to speak Swedish.Most Swedes speak English very well.

Must buy
I have used the very fine Pimsleur course for another language (Hebrew) but, in looking for a course that costs a fraction of the Pimsleur price, I struck gold with the Berlitz Basic Spanish. There are 24 lessons, each about 7 minutes long. The lessons are divided into scenes on three audio tapes. The lessons are taught entirely in Spanish. It is amazing how well this works by putting the conversation in context and by using a guidebook. By going through each lesson several times and doing the exercises in the book, you learn Spanish in an easy and enjoyable manner, Having used Pimsleur, I believe that dollar for dollar, the Berlitz method compares well. You can't go wrong with either {Pimsleur or Berlitz) but, for less than 30 bucks, your money is very well spent with the Berlitz basic Spanish. The big difference between these two fine methods (Berlitz & Pimsleur) is the following: (1) Pimsleur has a series of 32 longer lessons in which the language is taught using both English and the language you are learning on the tape. The Pimsleur lessons are about anhour long. (2) The series of Berlitz lessons are about 8 or so minutes long and no English is spoken. The accompanying book provides English translation in marginal notes for new words that are introduced into the vocabulary. Both, programs are effective but Berlitz is a great bargain. ... Read more

Product Description

This new edition of Colloquial Swedish has been revised and updated to make learning Swedish easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Specially written by experienced teachers for self-study or class use, this clear, accurate course delivers a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Swedish.

The best choice in personal language learning, this third edition features:

• new texts and dialogues throughout
• links to websites about Sweden, its history, society and culture
• clear grammar notes and summary.

No prior knowledge of the language is required, and by the end of this rewarding course students will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Swedish in a broad range of everyday situations. This pack contains the accompanying audio on CDs, recorded by native speakers, these provide every opportunity to perfect pronunciation, listening and speaking skills.

Product Description

Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Customer Reviews (21)

Has anybody ever actually made a good start in learning Swedish from this book?
When I began graduate studies at Helsingfors Universitet, I was keen on learning some Swedish. I examined a number of different resources, including TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH, the most widely available self-teaching textbook in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, Vera Croghan's work must be one of the poorest volumes in the entire Teach Yourself series.

I had already learnt some basic Swedish for another textbook before opening TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH for the first time, and so I was shocked by how Croghan chose to begin her course. Right from the first chapter the reader faces a deluge of highly colloquial and idiomatic language. There's no gentle start from the very basics; instead, it's like you are dumped right into a Swedish crowd. Total immersion is a good language-learning technique in a classroom environment where a trained teacher can skillfully direct the group's activities, but I imagine most home learners will swiftly give up. Worse yet, many of the colloquialisms are already obsolete, and the use of several words Croghan claims are everyday will result in laughter from your Swedish friends.

The exercises make too few demands of the reader, requiring him only to utter a few phrases. Sweden is not a country where you need survival language skills. If you try to use overly simple language on the street, people are just going to answer in English. So, the learner might as wellwork towards as rigorous a command of the language as possible. It is therefore a pity that Croghan doesn't include exercises that really challenge you and force you to start thinking in Swedish. Furthermore, as Swedish word order is so different from that of English, the reader should do long prose translations from English into Swedish to flex his syntactic muscles. But you won't get that here.

Now, even though the course is completely useless for the beginners that it is marketed to, TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH does have some value for people with some amount of experience with the language already. The dialogues, especially as heard from the cassettes or CD, make one more comfortable with colloquial speech and popular expressions.

The book I eventually used to reach an intermediate level of Swedish is Gladis Hird's Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader (Cambridge University Press, 1977). Hird's textbook is among the best for any language that I've ever encountered, and teaches one both everyday Swedish and the basics of the literary language. Even when it goes for quite a bit on the used market it's worth seeking out more than TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH.

Has anybody ever actually made a good start in learning Swedish from this book?
When I began graduate studies at Helsingfors Universitet, I was keen on learning some Swedish. I examined a number of different resources, including TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH, the most widely available self-teaching textbook in the English-speaking world. Unfortunately, Vera Croghan's work must be one of the poorest volumes in the entire Teach Yourself series.

I had already learnt some basic Swedish for another textbook before opening TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH for the first time, and so I was shocked by how Croghan chose to begin her course. Right from the first chapter the reader faces a deluge of highly colloquial and idiomatic language. There's no gentle start from the very basics; instead, it's like you are dumped right into a Swedish crowd. Total immersion is a good language-learning technique in a classroom environment where a trained teacher can skillfully direct the group's activities, but I imagine most home learners will swiftly give up. Worse yet, many of the colloquialisms are already obsolete, and the use of several words Croghan claims are everyday will result in laughter from your Swedish friends.

The exercises make too few demands of the reader, requiring him only to utter a few phrases. Sweden is not a country where you need survival language skills. If you try to use overly simple language on the street, people are just going to answer in English. So, the learner might as wellwork towards as rigorous a command of the language as possible. It is therefore a pity that Croghan doesn't include exercises that really challenge you and force you to start thinking in Swedish. Furthermore, as Swedish word order is so different from that of English, the reader should do long prose translations from English into Swedish to flex his syntactic muscles. But you won't get that here.

Now, even though the course is completely useless for the beginners that it is marketed to, TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH does have some value for people with some amount of experience with the language already. The dialogues, especially as heard from the cassettes or CD, make one more comfortable with colloquial speech and popular expressions.

The book I eventually used to reach an intermediate level of Swedish is Gladis Hird's Swedish: An Elementary Grammar-Reader (Cambridge University Press, 1977). Hird's textbook is among the best for any language that I've ever encountered, and teaches one both everyday Swedish and the basics of the literary language. Even when it goes for quite a bit on the used market it's worth seeking out more than TEACH YOURSELF SWEDISH.

Save your money
As others have indicated, the quality of Teach Yourself varies from book to book.Teach Yourself Swedish is confusing, boring and of little value to the true beginner.

1.First, the book does a poor job of explaining regional pronunciation differences and does an even worse job of explaining general pronunciation.

2.Not all of the dialogues written in the book are recorded on the CD.Therefore you are always skipping through the book trying to figure out which dialogue you are hearing.

3.The storyline in the book is tedious and boring.

4.The different portions on grammar are OK, but there is very little organization with respect to vocabulary.

To conclude, the book and CD are disorganized, confusing and of very little help to people with no prior knowledge of the language.

Why the bad reviews?
This book and cd kit has everything one needs to start learning the swedish language. It is very thorough, giving an abundance of vocabulary (perhaps too much, which is one of the problems many have stated concerning the Teach Yourself series), goes over grammar and pronunciation, and has a clear and consistent format. Nothing is out of order as in some other books. TY generally has a very good reputation for all of the languages they provide and TY Swedish is no exception.

One person mentioned that this book should not be used alone as the sole aid in learning the language. This is true, but this is how most books of this type function. I would never recommend that you buy a conversation/exercise/audio kit and rely entirely on that. You must get a seperate grammar books as these kits are designed to be general so that you can see how the language works without the messiness of grammar. I dare anyone to show me a book that goes over the various nuances of a language's grammar all the while providing the same content of a TY kit. It simply isn't possible (with the exception of perhaps TY's Latin and Sanskrit books, but this is understandable).

And then someone else gave the book only one star simply because of its "pompous British pronunciation guide" and recommended that you get a grammar and language software program. This person obviously doesn't know much about learning languages on your own. First, all the TY books include references to pronuciations for sounds similar to the French, mainly because these sounds most widely occur in French. Second, how many people will be learning Swedish in the US? The majority of the world speaks British English and that's why the book is based on this. I don't see how this is pompous (perhaps the reviewer has some issues with the United Kingdom?). Lastly, software programs are the WORST way to go about learning a foreign language. They provide you with meaningless bits of simple vocabulary that you could learn from a cheaper (and more efficient, since these programs tend to be a bit buggy) phrase book.

The reviewer mentioning that there was too much English needs to remind himself that this is a "Teach Yourself" book meaning its meant for self-study. Anyone will agree that with books at the beginning level, you need to have some sort of English translation for self-study. Only in a class setting will you be able to manage without any English. Even the pimsleur courses start you off with English.

Swedish is really quite a fun language and seemingly easy, but like all, it has its difficulties. This book goes over them in a thorough yet understandable manner, though naturally, as with all languages, it helps if you have some experience in the field. I hope this review helped redeem the quality of this great learning tool.

Frustrating for beginners
Everyone learns differently. I personally like to know what I am saying, not just memorize a phrases.Yes, your brain picks up phrases best when in practical use, but it needs footholds togain ground and confidence. Unfortunately, this book provides few such footholds and much confusion. From the unhelpul and pompously-British pronunciation guide ("prounced rather like in French..." ) to the colloquial speech, regional dialects and complex grammer used throughout the book, this is not a book for true beginners. This book could, however, be useful as tool for someone with more experience to *hear* the language (albeit in stilted situations).

In general this series leaves me cold. I have tried several of the books and found them all to be too complex grammatically, and not "real world" enough either. So I am confused as a beginner but, by God, thanks to this series, I can say "French cheese"and "the dog is upstairs" in Japanese. This Swedish one is actually a little more useful in trems of credible situtions; but, par for the course, I doubt that I will need to learn to say "I am in training at an import-export firm" (lesson one)

My advice: Skip this book. Instead buy the Viberg grammer and a language software program. Better yet, if possible take a class ( there is no subtitution for actual language class or real world experience) ... Read more

Product Description
This complete reference guide to Swedish grammar is a new edition of the only comprehensive grammar of Swedish in English. It has been fully updated to accurately reflect Swedish as it is employed today in educated everyday use.A new chapter on word formation has also been included to reflect recent changes in a few areas of usage and to employ the new standards that have been set in the description of language.
An extensive index, numbered paragraphs and generous use of headings and cross-references provides readers with easy access to the information they require.

Key features of Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar, Second Edition include: * Still the only Comprehensive Grammar of Swedish in English
* New edition fully updated throughout to reflect recent changes in the language
* Essential reference source for learners of all levels
* Ideal for use as self-teach resource and class materials
* Entirely new chapter on word formation
* Detailed and useful cross-referencing
* Copious use of authentic examples
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Grammatik!Åt helvete med!
The average Swede doesn't love grammar any more than the average American, and most Swedes are as blissfully unaware of the formal grmmar of their language as most Americans, except when they encounter some telltale dialect irregularity. Swedish is to a degree a reformed language, unlike English, in which spellings have been regularized and grammatical anomalies pruned. Like English, however, Swedish has lost the vast majority of its conjugational and declensional forms, and like English, Swedish is loaded with words of Latin origin. In fact, Swedish is an awful lot like English, which explains the comparative ease with which most Swedes become fluent in English. Skipping over the curious Swedish articles and the "agreement of adjectives", Swedish word order is nearly parallel to English, and Swedes use a plethora of prepositions that seem outrageously idiomatic... until you realize that English has the same bad habit. It might help to imagine Swedish as the "other half" of English; if you put Swedish and French together in a blender, you'd end up with an English smoothie.

The Routledge Swedish Comprhensive Grammar is NOT a textbook for learning to speak Swedish. Believe me, learning to speak and understand spoken Swedish will require hours and months with a native speaker. Still, like other cognate-rich languages, Swedish should be easy enough to read with a modicum of grammar and a full-size dictionary. You DON'T need Swedish to visit Sweden, and you WON'T understand Bergman without subtitles just from a study of comparative grammar, but you'll be able to read Astrid Lindgren in Swedish in a few weeks if you try, and other great Swedish writers will eventually become available.

This summary of Swedish grammar is lucid, orderly, and remarkably complete. There are several kinds of readers who might find it useful: 1) teachers of English or linguists who do love grammar for its own sake; 2) scholars of Old English who want a comparative baseline for understanding the evolution of modern English; 3) people like me, who spent some of a childhood in Sweden but whose command of the language is imperfect.

Having tried at various times to teach Japanese and European colleagues a little more ample English, I can say that we anglophones have reason to be jealous. Would that we had as comprehensive a volume of English grammar as Routledge provides for Swedish!

A Reference Grammar Not a Textbook
If you are looking for a textbook, this is not the proper book. I hoped it would be a comprensive and grammatically intense text book structured like "L'essentiel de la grammaire francaise", where all the main grammar points are covered and well organized: usage of articles, nouns; tenses and moods of verbs; sentence structure, relative pronouns and clauses - all the topics that make up a grammar. This text is strictly a reference guide that often provides examples without exposition or statenment of the general grammatical rules. As a reference text, is is a somewhat poorly organized. Nonetheless, for someone who already knows Swedish, the book could be useful.

Comprehensive, but poorly organized
I purchased this book in order to learn Swedish. Although this book contains everything which is grammar-related in Swedish, it is very poorly organized - the index refers not to page numbers, but section numbers. The subject order in the book is not suited for a Swedish learner/student - it would rather be suitable for a teacher as a reference.

Very well written and comprehensive grammar
There are people who like nothing more than to pick up a book on the grammar of a foreign language and read it, to find out what that language is like and how it works, and I have to admit I'm one of them. We are the nerds of the linguistic universe (although technically, I would say the universal generative and mathematical grammar guys outrank us). But a book like this is enough to transport us to that big linguistic Valhalla in the sky.

This is a very detailed, well written, and comprehensive Swedish grammar that should serve the needs of the student and instructor of Swedish and of Germanic languages in general. In addition to the treatment of the grammar, it includes a glossary of linguistic and grammatical terms for those who are a little rusty on the details of their grammar, and who can't recall what a case declension, a subjective complement, or the subjunctive mood is anymore (although that modal construction, as in English, has almost disappeared).

I'd previously read Holmes's Swedish: An Essential Grammar, which is also excellent, but this one is even more detailed and comprehensive. As another reviewer observed, there is a dearth of basic resources for people interested in learning Swedish, and this book fills a major gap in the coverage that should be a boon to the most demanding student of the language.

Excellent book
I would describe it as "skit bra" infact. My need for learning Swedish is based on my living and working here. It's a big book but well worth the effort. Very well written and all the linguistic terms that youmay be unfamiliar with are explained in a glossary. I needed a goodthorough text on the subject and I think I made a good choice. I would liketo see more of the style guidelines/diktats such as those found in"Riktig Svenska" by Wallenberg (I think). That would make it aone stop shop for using Swedish. ... Read more

Product Description
Swedish is a germanic language that approximately 9 million people speak as their first language. While most speakers reside in Sweden, the entire Scandanavian region (Finland, Norway, and Denmark to be specific) speak or understand Swedish.

This book will teach you how to pronounce words, common phrases, the alphabet, useful words, question words, sentece structure, verb usage, numbers, days of the week, directions, time, weather, family, various nouns, commands, and more! By reading this book, you will have a very solid understanding of the basics of the Swedish Language! ... Read more

Product Description
book2 - is available in many languages - is ideal for beginners - has 100 short and easy chapters - corresponds to the European levels A1 and A2 - requires no prior knowledge of grammar - covers the basic vocabulary - uses simple structures to help you learn a language - helps you to speak complete sentences immediately - applies the latest memory research All downloads can be accessed at www.book2.de.The audio files are available free of charge at www.book2.de. ... Read more