Numbers are often used to modify nouns. In such cases they are adjectives. However, numbers can also used for the purpose of identification. Such numbers are called nominal numbers.
Swedish has special words for the numbers from one to twelve. The word refers to the number itself and is thus a nominal number. It is different from the adjectival form. For example, two children is två barn in Swedish. However, to say The number two is coming soon in reference to the number of the bus or train, the sentence is Tvåan kommer snart.
Here are the ordinal numbers from one to twelve in Swedish on the left and the nominal numbers on the right:
ett etta
två tvåa
tre trea
fyra fyra
fem femma
sex sexa
sju sjua
åtta åtta
nio nia
tio tia
elva elva
tolv tolva
In a few cases, the name of the ordinal number and the nominal number is the same. This is true with the names for the numbers eight and eleven. Unlike in English, Swedish has distinct names for the nominal numbers from one to twelve.
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