Pitch Accent of Swedish Words

All Swedish words have a pitch accent, tone 1 or tone 2. Tone 1 is also called the acute accent, and tone 2 is also called the grave accent. Let us examine the pitch accent of Swedish words.

All monosyllabic words in Swedish have Tone 1. Tone 2 can only occur with words of two or more syllables. Though the pitch accent of Swedish words must be learned, a few patterns can be observed.

Bisyllabic words which combine the singular and the postnominal definite article are tone 1. This is the case with hunden (the dog), katten (the cat) and skeppet (the ship). Adjectives with the ending -isk are also tone 1. This is the case with fantastisk (fantastic) and magisk (magic).

Plural nouns have Tone 2. This is the case with hundar (dogs), katter (cats) and kvinnor (women). However, if the noun undergoes a vowel change in the plural, the word has tone 1. This is the case with hand (hand) and händer (hands).

Compound nouns have tone 2. Examples include lastbil (truck) and sjukhus (hospital). Adjectives with the ending -ig also have tone 2. This is the case with rolig (funny) and trevlig (nice).

With certain endings either tone is possible. This is the case with words that end with -el and -er. The words cykel (bicycle), fågel (bird) and vinter (winter) have tone 1 while the words nyckel (key), spindel (spider) and syster (sister) have tone 2.

Pitch accent is a very important part of the Swedish language. Tone 1 is used with monosyllabic words and with adjectives which end with -isk. Most plural nouns have tone 2 as well as compounds and adjectives which end with -ig. With certain endings, either pitch accent is possible.