Sweden is an incredibly innovative country for its size and Swedes have been making history with inventions big and small for centuries. With Carl von Linné creating the taxonomy system in the 1700’s and the Spotify folks are reaching millions of music streamers across the globe today, innovation is a part of the Swedish narrative. We’ll learn how to discuss inventors and their creations in Swedish and highlight some groundbreaking inventions throughout the years. 

 

To invent, att uppfinna is the most important verb of the day! It’s forms are as follows:

uppfinner -> uppfann -> har uppfunnit

Visste du att svenskar uppfann Soundcloud? 
Did you know that Swedes invented Soundcloud? 

Next, the noun for an inventor is en uppfinnare:

Alfred Nobel är den mest kända svenska uppfinnaren. 
Alfred Nobel is the most famous Swedish inventor. 

…most Swedish students come to learn quite a bit about Nobel, but for those of you who don’t know why Alfred Nobel is such a big deal, in short, he was the scientist who invented dynamite in 1865. This earned him a fortune and to create his legacy, he established the Nobel foundation to award folks who made extraordinary contributions in academic, cultural, and scientific fields, aka, the Nobel Prizes!

An invention is en uppfinning, plural uppfinningar.

Tetra Pak är också en svensk uppfinning. 
Tetra Pak is also a Swedish invention.

A few more examples of classic uppfinningar throughout the years are as follows:

• Skiftnyckeln – the  adjustable wrench in 1892, uppfinnare: Johan Petter Johansson
• Blixtlåset -the zipper in 1910, uppfinnare: Gideon Sundbäck
  
• Respiratorn – the respirator in 1950,  uppfinnare: Carl Gunnar Engström
  
• Pacemakern – the pace maker in 1958, uppfinnare: Rune Elmqvist

Another helpful verb in this arena is att skapa, to create.

-> skapar -> skapade -> har skapat

Appropriately named, SKAPA is an organization that awards grants to Swedes with innovative ideas. 

Another helpful verb is att grunda, to found, for example:

Ericsson grundades i Sverige år 1876. 
Ericsson was founded in Sweden in the year 1876.  

Now, a couple of adjectives! To be known for something is to be känd för något. You can also use the adjective berömd, famous or notable. Till exempel:

Ingvar Kamprad är känd för att han startade IKEA.
Ingvar Kamprad is famous for starting IKEA.

Okej, now let’s get a little techy!  (Swedes kick butt in this category.)

First, the video chat megalith Skype was founded by a Swedish-Danish team, and we’ve also got telecommunications giant Ericsson, and music streaming services like Spotify, Soundcloud, contributing to the list of global companies with Swedish roots. There are also plenty of apps developed by entrepreneurial Swedes. One such example that is turning heads today is an an app called Karma.

Sweden.se says:

“Via the app, supermarkets, restaurants and cafés can offer products that are about to expire at half price, instead of throwing them away. In just two years, Karma claims to have attracted 400,000 users around Sweden and in London.”

Sweden is also credited with inventing oat milk in the 1990’s, and the popular brand Oatly is seeking to change the world by helping consumer’s reduce our carbon footprint.

…annnnd the list continues! To learn about a few more inventions, read Sweden.se’s 10 Inventions You Didn’t Know Were Swedish. How many of these inventions do you use in your daily life? Write below in the comments!