Normally, learners of a second language like Swedish want to learn the standard version, which for Swedish as known as rikssvenska or standardsvenska. Yet, Sweden, being the long, vast country it is, has numerous dialects spoken in all the different parts of the country — some big, some small. So even if your goal is to be proficient in standard Swedish, it is a good idea to understand how Swedish dialects can vary.

Dialects in general can differ in many ways: pronunciation, vocabulary, even grammar. Within each of these categories are various subcategories. Here, you can read all about how Swedish dialects differ in terms of vocabulary.

In the dialects of Uppland (collectively called uppländska), where the city of Uppsala is located, it is very common to use vart as a replacement for var. In other words, the distinction between var (“where” referring to static location) and vart (“to where” referring to movement toward a location) is not used. Similarly, many dialects in Norrland (norrländska) have also done away with this distinction – many norrlänningar (or Norrlanders) say vars in place of both var and vart. Differently from var and vart, vars is pronounced with a short a (as in katt). This vars is not to be confused with the other Swedish word vars, which means “whose” (as used in relative subclauses).

In the city of Umeå and other parts of Västerbotten (whose dialects are collectively called västerbottniska), many people refer to socks as sockar – contrary to the standard Swedish strumpor. This was a shock to me when I first visted Umeå!

In the Swedish capital of Stockholm (stockholmska), it is common to hear people say pröjsa instead of betala, “to pay”. Stockholmers (stockholmare), after a late night out, might call for a bulle (litterally “bun” or “roll”), otherwise known as a taxi.

In parts of Västergötland, you might hear the word klenig – the opposite of what an English-speaker might guess, this means “dirty” (smutsig in standard Swedish).

In Värmland (värmländska), your favorite lingonberry jam is made of kröser – lingonberry (lingon in standard Swedish).

In Göteborg (known as Gothenburg in English, dialect göteborgska), you might hear people tjöta, or “chat”, (standard Swedish slang snacka) at a street-side café. And then they might thing you’re tetig, or “strange” (standard Swedish underlig), for staring at them.

And on the island of Gotland (gotländska), you might come across a pinnsvain – the Gotlandic word for “hedgehog” (standard Swedish igelkott).

What kind of Swedish do the Swedes you know speak? Stockholmska? Värmländska? Do they often use dialectal words you haven’t learnt? What kind of Swedish do you ultimately want to learn? Tell us about it in the comments!