Swedish style guide¶
Use this page for Swedish product text, help and communications. Follow the shared voice, mechanics and localization review guidance. The examples explain language choices, not product features. Check unfamiliar word forms in Svenska Akademien's dictionaries and writing questions in Språkrådet's Frågelådan.
Address and meaning¶
Address the reader as du. Keep din, ditt and dina where ownership matters, without repeating them unnecessarily. Use vi for real work by the company or support team. An application can perform an operation: FontLab öppnar filen. Neither passive wording nor kan automatically gives an application a personality.
Choose familiar wording such as få, men, till exempel and enligt when it preserves the relation. Baserat på is not an exact substitute for every use of enligt. Föregående may be the correct sequence term or literal label. Keep approved terminology for app, program, e-post and mejl; a device category alone does not settle every term. Use ladda ned consistently for downloading.
Rewrite for natural Swedish without changing the conditions. A pinned site is not simply any site. A recently saved file need not be one the reader saved. Invalid or missing properties are not the same as required fields that have not been filled in. Preserve the distinction in Rätta ogiltiga egenskaper och fyll i de egenskaper som saknas when both kinds of repair are required.
Retain uncertainty, time and scope. Du kan ändra när uppdateringar installeras describes changing the timing, not making a change after installation. Tillfälligt otillgänglig retains a temporary limitation. Cancelling a dialog does not guarantee that work is saved. Do not replace a restriction with a shorter reassurance or add a reproach such as “don't forget” to a factual error message.
Write to the actual audience without stereotypes about what Swedish readers know, celebrate or find funny. Keep claims supported by their evidence and use the appropriate house register. Do not copy a supplier's superlative rules, activation promises or privacy boilerplate as proof of another product's behavior. Localizing a real name, place or currency must not change the fact it identifies. Use clearly fictional sample data where examples need invented people or records.
People and ownership¶
Use a precise role, a plural or a natural rephrasing for a generic person. Keep the condition in En användare med rätt behörighet kan ändra andra användares lösenord. Do not give a restricted action to every reader when changing the pronoun. A collective such as personal does not always replace an individual employee.
Hen can refer to someone whose gender is unknown or irrelevant, or to a person who uses that pronoun. The possessive is hens; the recommended object form is also hen, as in Skicka länken till hen. For a real person, use that person's name and pronouns. See Språkrådet's guidance on hen.
Choose accurate role names such as talesperson when they fit. Use a neutral adjective form for an unspecified person: den nya användaren. Do not describe every -a form as feminine or claim that every established job title containing man refers only to men. Mention identity or disability when it is relevant and follow the person's preferred description. Use the shared accessible-content guidance.
Preserve ownership: din fil, Noors fil and filen can refer to different things. A reflexive possessive relates to the subject: Användaren öppnar sin fil. Repeat the owner if sin, hans, hennes or hens would be ambiguous in a longer sentence.
Ordinary genitives take s without an English apostrophe: filens namn, Noors mapp. Initialisms can take a colon: EU:s. This differs from the hyphen in a compound such as EU-länder. Keep an approved product name intact, using a phrase such as inställningarna i FontLab when that is clearer than attaching an ending. See Språkrådet on initialism compounds and genitives.
Articles, agreement and variables¶
Choose common or neuter gender to fit the noun. Definite noun phrases often need both a separate article and a definite ending:
| Construction | Example |
|---|---|
| Indefinite file | en ny fil |
| Indefinite document | ett nytt dokument |
| Definite file | den nya filen |
| Definite document | det nya dokumentet |
| Files | de nya filerna |
| Documents | de nya dokumenten |
The noun can be implied elsewhere in an interface, so inspect the surrounding strings. Nytt is not a universal fallback for an unknown noun: en mapp needs ny, while ett dokument needs nytt. Use a complete phrase, separate grammatical variants or a construction with a known noun. Do not ship Ny/nytt as a repair for missing context.
A filename pattern such as Det gick inte att öppna filen {name}. supplies a known noun. It does not prove the same wording will work with a person's name or an arbitrary object type. Keep number: 1 fil, 2 filer, 1 dokument, 2 dokument. A dynamic count needs the right form; an English parenthetical plural is not a reason to display fil(er).
Keep parser tokens, format specifiers, escapes and markup exact. Reorder only when the format supports it. Test long names and the whole substituted sentence. Do not assume every token resembling %c contains a letter rather than a character. Use messages and variables.
Compounds and abbreviations¶
Write ordinary compounds together: filnamn, felsökning, nedladdning. Fel sökning describes the wrong search; it does not mean troubleshooting. Use a prepositional phrase to clarify a long compound instead of inserting spaces into its component words. A fixed limit on the number of components cannot determine whether a term is readable.
Use hyphens where needed, as in USB-port, CAD-system and 25-procentig. A borrowed element does not always require a hyphen: check the accepted word form. In maskin- och programvara, the first hyphen marks the omitted shared element. A phrase such as menyn Arkiv keeps the control's name clear without forcing another compound. Reproduce a literal product or menu name exactly.
Use familiar abbreviations where they help: t.ex., bl.a., m.m. Longer prose can spell them out. An initialism may need an explanation at first use; that does not require a parenthetical English expansion in every short message. Keep meaningful case in technical identifiers and unit symbols such as mm, s and kB. Do not invent an abbreviation to force a control into insufficient space.
Instructions and message states¶
Use imperative instructions: Öppna filen, Välj en mapp, Spara dokumentet. Keep procedure wording consistent. An action heading can use the infinitive without att: Lägga till en fil. A direct instruction uses Lägg till en fil. Do not confuse the two merely because many Swedish verbs have the same written imperative and infinitive.
Keep purpose and requirement: Du måste öppna dokumentet för att kunna redigera det states a prerequisite. Om du vill is not a universal replacement for för att. Put the action first when that reads naturally, but do not label every sentence with an initial condition or purpose clause ungrammatical.
Use local word order and prepositions: i menyn, på verktygsfältet, spara i en mapp. Keep the distinction between a place and a destination. A relative clause may end with a preposition when that is natural. Den nyligen sparade filen need not become filen som du sparade: the latter adds an actor.
Choose wording for the actual state:
| Function | Example |
|---|---|
| Action label | Spara |
| Instruction | Spara filen. |
| In progress | Filen håller på att sparas. |
| Completed | Filen har sparats. |
| Failed attempt | Det gick inte att spara filen. |
| Current impossibility | Det går inte att spara filen. |
Keep past and present distinct when the message distinguishes a failed attempt from a current limitation. Present tense can describe a scheduled or predictable result, but do not replace every future construction automatically. A short status fragment can work where its context is clear. A decision needs a question: Vill du fortsätta?
Keep everyone affected and the possibility of loss: Om du startar om datorn nu kan du och andra som använder den förlora arbete som inte har sparats. Explain an irreversible consequence directly: Det går inte att ångra den här åtgärden. A failed search does not establish that a file has been deleted. Distinguish memory from storage, and retain a specific exception type when a technical reader needs it. Follow interface feedback.
Capitalization and punctuation¶
Use sentence case for new headings and controls. Keep weekday and month names lowercase: måndag, september. Keep an existing control's exact case and ellipsis; do not capitalize a whole name merely to distinguish it from prose. Use formatting for that purpose. Capitals remain valid in names and initialisms, and retain the Swedish letters when uppercase is required: ÅÄÖ, ÖPPNA, ÄNDRINGAR.
Place commas to make the structure clear. Independent clauses and parenthetical additions often need commas; closely connected elements should stay together. Do not use a rigid four-word threshold. A normal list has filnamn, storlek och datum without an English serial comma. Rewrite a complex list if the grouping is unclear. See Språkrådet's comma guidance.
Use ”…” for typographic quotation marks. Preserve literal straight quotes in code. Keep parentheses close to their contents. Use a colon to introduce an explanation or list where the grammar supports it; the following capitalization depends on the construction. Do not turn every list item into a title.
Prefer a colon to a parenthetical dash. Space a dash used for an aside; leave a range dash unspaced, as in sidorna 3–6. A mathematical minus is a different character. Use an ellipsis only for its actual function, and preserve it when it belongs to the literal control being cited.
Numbers and spacing¶
Use a decimal comma in ordinary Swedish values: 12,5, 0,5. Group large numbers with nonbreaking spaces: 1 526,75. Keep identifiers, postal codes, years and versions in their required format; 1.2.0 remains a version string. Use numerals for measurements, dynamic counts and exact interface values rather than forcing a small-number spelling rule onto every context.
Keep a nonbreaking space between a number and its unit, currency or percent sign: 12,5 mm, 1 250 kr, 50 %, −18 °C. Write tum for inches when needed, as in 2,5 tum. The display format must not change the unit, magnitude or currency. Do not relabel a dollar amount as kronor without an authorized conversion. Språkrådet explains digit grouping and percent spacing.
A spelled-out ordinal can make running text easier to read; where a numeric ordinal is needed, use its correct ending, as in 22:a and 34:e. Make dates unambiguous: 13 september 2026. Keep a documented time format consistent and retain the time zone when it matters.
Use Swedish words such as och or plus where prose requires them; retain literal symbols in names, formulas and code. Screen-reader behavior needs a rendered check, not a blanket ban on mathematical signs or nonbreaking spaces in online text.
Keyboard wording and speech¶
Use the key name for the actual platform and layout. Piltangenter, vänsterpil, högerpil, uppåtpil and nedåtpil are local terms; a keyboard may label another key Retur or Enter. Keep that distinction when it affects the task. Verify access keys, shortcut combinations and focus behavior in the product. Explain numeric-keypad requirements rather than assuming every same-looking key is equivalent.
Use natural Swedish pronunciation and an approved reading of names. An initialism may be read as a word or letter by letter; do not infer its pronunciation from an old supplier catalog. Read every character needed to reproduce a URL, command or version, including a meaningful punkt. Match narration to the visual action without forcing a new sentence at every screen change. Follow the shared audiovisual guidance.