Class 2 — the -ar plural — is the largest of the five Swedish declensions and the one that pays off fastest in conversation, because so many of the most frequent concrete nouns live here: bil, hund, dag, pojke, stol, häst, väg. It is almost entirely an en-word class. This page covers the basic rule, the -e nouns that drop their final vowel, the recognisable -ing and -dom sub-groups, and the full four-form paradigm with its definite plural -arna.
The rule: add -ar to the stem
For most class 2 nouns the operation is straightforward: take the noun and add -ar. Unlike class 1, you usually add nothing more than the ending — there is no -a to drop, because these nouns typically end in a consonant:
en bil → bilar · en hund → hundar · en dag → dagar · en stol → stolar
These are nearly all common-gender (en) nouns. The class is so large that, after the -a → -or nouns of class 1 are accounted for, -ar is the default guess for a great many one- and two-syllable en-words — though it does compete with -er (class 3) on one-syllable words, which is the one place you still have to learn the word individually.
Det stod två bilar och en buss på parkeringen.
Two cars and a bus were in the car park. bil → bilar — add -ar to the stem.
Vi har varit i Sverige i tio dagar.
We've been in Sweden for ten days. dag → dagar.
Grannarna har tre hundar och en katt.
The neighbours have three dogs and a cat. hund → hundar.
Nouns ending in -e drop the -e
A sizeable sub-group of class 2 nouns ends in an unstressed -e in the singular. These drop the -e before adding -ar, so the ending effectively replaces the -e:
en pojke → pojkar · en timme → timmar · en pinne → pinnar
The everyday model is en pojke → pojkar ("boy → boys"): the -e disappears, and you do not write pojkear. Other common -e members include en timme → timmar ("hour → hours") and en pinne → pinnar ("stick → sticks").
Pojkarna spelar fotboll efter skolan varje dag.
The boys play football after school every day. pojke → pojkar — the -e drops before -ar.
Tåget går om två timmar.
The train leaves in two hours. timme → timmar — note the double m stays and the -e drops.
Two recognisable sub-groups: -ing and -dom
Two derivational endings reliably land their nouns in class 2, which is a rare gift of predictability:
- Nouns in -ing (often verbal nouns): en tidning → tidningar ("newspaper → newspapers"), en övning → övningar ("exercise → exercises"), en lösning → lösningar ("solution → solutions").
- Nouns in -dom: en sjukdom → sjukdomar ("illness → illnesses"), en ungdom → ungdomar ("youth → young people").
If a noun ends in -ing or -dom, you can predict -ar with confidence.
Det stod flera annonser i tidningarna.
There were several adverts in the newspapers. tidning → tidningar → tidningarna.
Vaccinet skyddar mot flera allvarliga sjukdomar.
The vaccine protects against several serious illnesses. sjukdom → sjukdomar — the -dom ending predicts -ar.
The full paradigm: all four forms
A class 2 noun runs across the four forms like this. The definite singular adds -en (consonant-final stem) or -n (after a vowel/-e stem), the indefinite plural is -ar, and the definite plural adds -na to give -arna:
| Indef. sing. | Def. sing. | Indef. plural | Def. plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| en bil | bilen | bilar | bilarna | car |
| en hund | hunden | hundar | hundarna | dog |
| en dag | dagen | dagar | dagarna | day |
| en stol | stolen | stolar | stolarna | chair |
| en häst | hästen | hästar | hästarna | horse |
| en pojke | pojken | pojkar | pojkarna | boy |
| en sjö | sjön | sjöar | sjöarna | lake |
| en gård | gården | gårdar | gårdarna | farm / yard |
Two rows are worth a second look. En pojke ends in -e, so its definite singular is just pojken (add -n, the stem already ends in a vowel) while the plural drops the -e: pojkar. And en sjö ends in a stressed vowel (ö), so the plural simply adds -ar onto the vowel — sjöar — with no letter dropped and the ö fully preserved.
Vi badade i flera sjöar under sommaren.
We swam in several lakes over the summer. sjö → sjöar — -ar added straight onto the stressed vowel; the ö stays.
Hästarna betar på gårdarna runt byn.
The horses graze on the farms around the village. Definite plurals: hästarna, gårdarna — note the ä and å are unchanged.
A note on what is NOT class 2
Be careful with high-frequency one-syllable nouns that look like they should take -ar but actually take umlaut plus -er and belong to class 3 — not here. En hand → händer, en bok → böcker, en son → söner, en man → män all change their stem vowel and are class 3 (or the zero class). Do not file them under -ar: handar and boker are simply wrong. These umlaut nouns are covered on Irregular Plurals and previewed on Plural Class 3: -er.
❌ Jag tvättade händerna — wrong if written 'handarna'
A reminder: 'hand' is class 3 with umlaut (händer), not class 2 (*handar).
✅ Jag tvättade händerna.
I washed my hands. hand → händer → händerna — class 3, not 2.
Orthography: drop -e, keep å/ä/ö, keep doubled consonants
Three spelling points. First, drop the final unstressed -e before -ar (pojke → pojkar), but never any other letter. Second, å, ä, ö in the stem stay unchanged — class 2 has no umlaut, so gård → gårdar, häst → hästar, sjö → sjöar all keep their special letter. Third, a doubled consonant in the stem stays doubled: en timme → timmar keeps its mm.
Common Mistakes
❌ en bil → bils / bils
Incorrect — no -s plural in Swedish; class 2 takes -ar.
✅ en bil → bilar
a car → cars.
❌ en pojke → pojkear
Incorrect — the final -e must drop before -ar.
✅ en pojke → pojkar
a boy → boys — drop the -e.
❌ en hand → handar (assuming class 2)
Incorrect — 'hand' takes umlaut and belongs to class 3: hand → händer.
✅ en hand → händer
a hand → hands — class 3, a → ä.
❌ bilar (definite plural) for 'the cars'
Incorrect — that's the indefinite plural; the definite plural adds -na: bilarna.
✅ bilarna
the cars — -ar plus -na.
Key Takeaways
- Class 2 is the -ar plural and the largest class: en-words that add -ar (bil → bilar, dag → dagar).
- Nouns ending in -e drop the -e before -ar (pojke → pojkar) — never pojkear.
- Two endings reliably predict class 2: -ing (tidning → tidningar) and -dom (sjukdom → sjukdomar).
- Full paradigm: en bil / bilen / bilar / bilarna — the definite plural is -arna.
- Class 2 keeps its stem vowel; umlaut nouns like hand → händer and bok → böcker are class 3, not here.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- The Five Plural DeclensionsA2 — Swedish builds plurals through five declension classes — -or, -ar, -er, -n, and a zero ending — not the English -s. This overview names all five, gives a model noun for each, and lays out the prediction rules competitors omit: gender plus the word's final sound forecasts the class about 80% of the time, so the system is far less random than it first looks.
- The Definite PluralA2 — How Swedish says 'the cars / the girls / the houses': you take the indefinite plural and add a second definite suffix — -orna (flickorna), -arna (bilarna), -erna (sakerna), -na (äpplena), and -en for the zero-plural ett-words (husen). The rule of thumb: add -na to vowel-ending plurals, -en to consonant-ending zero plurals. Plus the dangerous look-alike: husen ('the houses') vs the -en that elsewhere marks the definite SINGULAR.
- Plural Class 1: -orA2 — The first Swedish plural declension: en-words ending in unstressed -a drop the -a and add -or (en flicka → flickor), with definite plural -orna (flickorna). It is the most predictable class of all — the -a ending almost guarantees -or — which makes it the ideal one to learn first.
- Plural Class 3: -er and Umlaut PluralsB1 — The third Swedish plural declension: the indefinite plural in -er, covering many one-syllable en-words (sak → saker), stress-final loanwords (station → stationer, parti → partier), and a small closed set of umlaut nouns whose stem vowel changes (hand → händer, bok → böcker, fot → fötter). Definite plural -erna. The umlaut subgroup is not a productive rule but a memorisable handful of high-frequency words.