Sooner or later you'll catch a cold abroad, and the vocabulary of the body and the doctor's office is exactly the kind that doesn't come up in a phrasebook until you urgently need it. This page covers it — but it also teaches two things that catch out English speakers well past beginner level. First, a handful of body parts have irregular -on plurals (öga → ögon, "eyes") that you cannot guess from the rules. Second, and more pervasive, Swedish uses the definite form, not a possessive, for body parts in everyday actions: you borstar tänderna ("brush the teeth"), not mina tänder ("my teeth"). Owning your own body is taken for granted, so the possessive is dropped.
Body parts and the -on plurals
Most body parts form their plural the regular way (arm → armar, ben → ben). But a small, very high-frequency group takes the archaic -on plural — a leftover from Old Swedish that survived precisely because these words are used so often:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
| öga | ögon | eye → eyes |
| öra | öron | ear → ears |
| öra (def.) | öronen | the ears |
| öga (def.) | ögonen | the eyes |
These two — ögon and öron — are the ones to memorise; there is no productive rule, you simply learn them. (Note both start with ö.) Other common body parts have their own irregularities worth keeping together:
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
| hand | händer | hand → hands (ä, umlaut) |
| tand | tänder | tooth → teeth (ä, umlaut) |
| fot | fötter | foot → feet (ö, umlaut) |
| finger | fingrar | finger → fingers |
| knä | knän | knee → knees |
Notice the umlaut plurals: hand → händer, tand → tänder, fot → fötter. Like English's own foot → feet, the vowel changes — these are cousins of the same ancient process.
Hon har gröna ögon och bär glasögon när hon läser.
She has green eyes and wears glasses when she reads. ögon (irregular -on plural); 'glasögon' = glasses, built on the same plural.
Jag hör dåligt på vänster öra — jag har ont i båda öronen.
I hear poorly in my left ear — both ears hurt. öra singular, öronen definite plural.
The definite, not the possessive
This is the rule that quietly marks fluent speakers. When you do something to or with your own body part — and it's obvious it's yours — Swedish uses the definite form, where English insists on a possessive ("my," "your"):
| Swedish | English (literally) |
|---|---|
| Jag borstar tänderna. | I brush the teeth. (= my teeth) |
| Hon tvättar händerna. | She washes the hands. (= her hands) |
| Han kammar håret. | He combs the hair. (= his hair) |
| Blunda med ögonen. | Close the eyes. (= your eyes) |
The logic: if the owner is obvious from context — and your own teeth, hands, and hair almost always are — the possessive is redundant, so Swedish drops it and lets the definite article do the job. You only add a possessive when ownership is in question or contrastive: Det är inte mitt ben, det är ditt ("That's not my leg, it's yours"), where the contrast genuinely matters.
Jag borstar tänderna och tvättar händerna innan jag lägger mig.
I brush my teeth and wash my hands before I go to bed. Definite tänderna, händerna — no 'mina'; the owner is obvious.
Hon slog i huvudet och skadade armen i fallet.
She hit her head and hurt her arm in the fall. huvudet, armen (definite) — Swedish doesn't say 'sitt huvud, sin arm' when it's plainly her own.
Symptoms: describing what's wrong
The everyday symptom phrases mostly use vara + adjective or ha + noun:
| Swedish | English |
|---|---|
| Jag är förkyld. | I have a cold. (förkyld = "chilled", ö) |
| Jag har feber. | I have a fever. |
| Jag har hosta. / Jag hostar. | I have a cough. / I'm coughing. |
| Jag har ont i halsen. | I have a sore throat. |
| Jag är illamående. | I feel nauseous / sick. |
| Jag är trött och hängig. | I'm tired and run-down. |
Note förkyld ("having a cold") is an adjective used with vara — Jag är förkyld, literally "I am chilled/cold-struck," not Jag har en förkylning (though the noun förkylning exists: Jag har fått en förkylning, "I've caught a cold"). Watch the ö in förkyld.
Jag är förkyld och har feber — jag tror jag stannar hemma.
I have a cold and a fever — I think I'll stay home. vara förkyld + ha feber, the two core symptom frames.
Han har hostat i en vecka och har fortfarande ont i halsen.
He's been coughing for a week and still has a sore throat. ha hosta / hosta (verb); ha ont i halsen.
At the doctor
The vocabulary of a medical visit. Note that in Sweden you typically call vårdcentralen (the local health centre) and boka en tid ("book an appointment"):
| Swedish | English |
|---|---|
| boka en tid / Jag behöver en tid. | book an appointment / I need an appointment |
| en läkare / en doktor | a doctor |
| ett recept | a prescription |
| en medicin / ett läkemedel | a medicine / a drug |
| apoteket | the pharmacy |
| sjukskriven | signed off sick (by a doctor) |
Hej, jag skulle vilja boka en tid — jag har haft feber i tre dagar.
Hi, I'd like to book an appointment — I've had a fever for three days. boka en tid; note 'en tid' DOES take an article here (a real, countable appointment).
Läkaren skrev ut ett recept som jag hämtar på apoteket.
The doctor wrote a prescription that I'll pick up at the pharmacy. skriva ut ett recept; hämta på apoteket.
Jag blev sjukskriven en vecka eftersom jag inte kunde gå till jobbet.
I was signed off sick for a week because I couldn't go to work. sjukskriven — a single word, very common in Swedish working life.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag har två ögor och två öror.
Incorrect — these take the irregular -on plural, not regular -or.
✅ Jag har två ögon och två öron.
I have two eyes and two ears. öga→ögon, öra→öron.
❌ Jag borstar mina tänder varje morgon.
Unidiomatic — Swedish uses the definite for your own body parts, not a possessive.
✅ Jag borstar tänderna varje morgon.
I brush my teeth every morning. Definite tänderna, no 'mina'.
❌ Jag har en kall. (for 'I have a cold')
Incorrect — 'a cold' isn't 'en kall'. Use the adjective: Jag är förkyld.
✅ Jag är förkyld.
I have a cold. vara förkyld (ö).
❌ Hon tvättar sina händer.
Unidiomatic when it's obviously her own hands — use the definite.
✅ Hon tvättar händerna.
She washes her hands. Definite händer→händerna.
❌ Jag behöver boka en tid till min fötter.
Two errors: 'mina' agreement, and you'd say it about a problem, not own the appointment-feet. Plural of fot is fötter, and 'min' must be 'mina'.
✅ Jag behöver boka en tid — jag har ont i fötterna.
I need to book an appointment — my feet hurt. fot→fötter→fötterna (definite); ha ont i.
Key Takeaways
- Two body-part plurals are irregular and unavoidable: öga → ögon ("eyes"), öra → öron ("ears"). Also umlaut plurals: hand → händer, tand → tänder, fot → fötter.
- For your own body parts in ordinary actions, use the definite form, not a possessive: borsta tänderna, tvätta händerna. Add min/mitt/mina only when ownership is contrastive.
- Core symptoms: vara förkyld (have a cold, ö), ha feber/hosta, ha ont i + definite body part.
- At the doctor: boka en tid (here en tid does take an article), ett recept, apoteket, sjukskriven.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Irregular and Foreign PluralsB1 — The plurals that escape the five regular declensions: suppletive natives (en man → män, en mus → möss, en gås → gäss, en ko → kor), the Old Norse -on body-part plurals (ett öga → ögon, ett öra → öron), and Latin/Greek loan plurals (ett museum → museer, ett centrum → centra/centrum, en examen → examina). Small closed lists to memorise — not rules to apply — plus the honest note that some Latin plurals are optional.
- Feelings and Physical StatesA2 — Saying how you feel in Swedish: må for overall health (Hur mår du? Jag mår bra), känna sig + adjective for transient feelings (Jag känner mig trött/stressad), and the have-construction for pain — ha ont i + body part (Jag har ont i huvudet, literally 'I have pain in the head'), where English uses a body part as subject ('my head hurts').
- When Swedish Uses No ArticleB1 — The places where Swedish drops an article that English insists on: generic plurals and abstractions (Hundar är trogna), the productive 'do an activity' pattern (spela fotboll, åka buss, spela piano — all bare), and a set of fixed prepositional phrases. The distinguishing insight: the activity phrases aren't unrelated idioms but one learnable pattern that systematically omits the article.
- Expressions and Collocations: OverviewA2 — How Swedish phraseology actually works, and why you can't build it word-by-word from English. Swedish leans heavily on fixed collocations and on LIGHT-VERB expressions — a small verb like ta, göra, or ha plus a noun (ta en fika 'have a coffee break', ta en dusch, göra ett försök). Spotting the ta/göra/ha + noun pattern unlocks dozens of everyday actions. This page maps the group and routes you to the themed pages.