Collective and Approximate Numbers (ett dussin, ett tjugotal) | Swedish Grammar

Once you can count exactly in Swedish, the next layer is counting vaguely and counting in groups — "a couple," "about fifty," "every other day," "twice as big." English handles this with a scatter of unrelated words (a dozen, scores, every other, twice). Swedish is tidier: at its heart sits a single productive device, the -tal suffix, which converts any round number into a clean "roughly that many." Around it cluster a handful of collectives, distributives, and multiplicatives. This page lays out all four families so you can say "about twenty people came" or "every other weekend" without resorting to clumsy exact numbers.

Collectives: dussin, par, and friends

A few nouns name a fixed group size. The two you must know:

ett dussin — "a dozen," exactly 12. Common in shopping and baking contexts; ett halvt dussin = "half a dozen."
ett par — "a pair" or "a couple," i.e. roughly two (sometimes loosely "a few"). Ett par skor = "a pair of shoes"; ett par dagar = "a couple of days."

Note that after these the counted noun is usually a bare plural with no preposition — ett dussin ägg ("a dozen eggs"), not ett dussin av ägg. The word for "a pair/couple" is ett par with ett; don't confuse it with the unrelated en par (which isn't a thing) — it is always ett par.

Kan du köpa ett dussin ägg på vägen hem?

Can you buy a dozen eggs on the way home? ett dussin = exactly 12; the noun follows as a bare plural, no 'av'.

Vi stannar bara ett par dagar, sen åker vi vidare.

We're only staying a couple of days, then we move on. ett par = 'a couple,' loosely two; ett par dagar is the everyday 'a few days.'

Jag behöver ett par nya skor till bröllopet.

I need a pair of new shoes for the wedding. ett par for a literal pair — shoes, gloves, socks.

The -tal suffix: the approximation machine

This is the heart of the page and the device with no neat English parallel. Take a round number, add -tal, and you get a neuter noun meaning "about that many." The base is ett tal ("a number"), and the construction is fully productive:

Number	Approximation	Meaning
tio (10)	ett tiotal	about ten
tjugo (20)	ett tjugotal	about twenty
femtio (50)	ett femtiotal	about fifty
hundra (100)	ett hundratal	about a hundred
tusen (1000)	ett tusental	about a thousand

The counted noun follows directly as a bare plural: ett femtiotal personer ("about fifty people"). Two things make this powerful. First, it is systematic — you can build ett trettiotal, ett sextiotal, ett fyrahundratal on demand, where English has no parallel "-ish" suffix and falls back on around / roughly / some. Second, the plural -tal forms (tiotals, hundratals, tusentals) mean "tens of / hundreds of / thousands of" — large indefinite quantities.

Ett femtiotal personer dök upp på mötet.

About fifty people showed up at the meeting. ett femtiotal personer = 'roughly fifty' — the -tal suffix builds the approximation; personer follows as a bare plural.

Det kom ett tjugotal mejl medan jag var borta.

About twenty emails came in while I was away. ett tjugotal = 'around twenty' — far smoother than ungefär tjugo here.

Hundratals demonstranter samlades på torget.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the square. The plural hundratals = 'hundreds of' — an indefinite large number, not exactly 100.

Olyckan inträffade någon gång på sextiotalet.

The accident happened sometime in the sixties. Watch out: sextiotalet ('the sixties') is the same suffix used for DECADES — context tells you which.

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The decade trap: -talet (definite) means a decade — sextiotalet = "the 1960s," nittonhundratalet = "the 20th century." But ett sextiotal (indefinite, with ett) means "about sixty." Same suffix, opposite job; the article and definiteness disambiguate. Ett tjugotal år = "some twenty years"; tjugotalet = "the 1920s."

Other approximators

Beyond -tal, Swedish has a small kit of vaguer quantity words:

ett antal — "a number of," neutral and common in writing. Ett antal frågor = "a number of questions."
en massa / massor av — "loads of, a ton of" (informal). En massa folk = "loads of people."
en del — "some, a fair few," partitive. En del av dem = "some of them."
ungefär / cirka (ca) / drygt / knappt — the adverbs "approximately / about / a good / barely": ungefär trettio, drygt hundra ("a good hundred, just over"), knappt femtio ("barely fifty, just under").

Det var massor av folk på festivalen — omöjligt att räkna.

There were loads of people at the festival — impossible to count. massor av = 'loads of,' informal large indefinite quantity.

Vi fick in ett antal klagomål, men inte särskilt många.

We received a number of complaints, but not particularly many. ett antal = 'a number of,' neutral register, common in reports.

Resan tar drygt tre timmar, knappt fyra.

The trip takes a good three hours, barely four. drygt = 'just over,' knappt = 'just under' — precise approximation markers.

Distributives: varje, varannan

To say "each / every / every other," Swedish uses:

varje — "each, every" (invariable): varje dag ("every day"), varje gång ("every time").
var
- number — "every Nth": var tredje dag ("every third day"), var femte minut ("every five minutes," literally "every fifth minute").
varannan (common) / vartannat (neuter) — "every other / every second," agreeing with gender: varannan vecka ("every other week"), vartannat år ("every other year").

Jag tränar varannan dag, inte varje dag.

I work out every other day, not every day. varannan dag = 'every other day'; varje dag = 'every day.'

Bussen går var tionde minut i rusningstrafik.

The bus runs every ten minutes during rush hour. var tionde minut = 'every tenth minute' — the 'every Nth' pattern uses the ordinal.

Vi byter ut filtret vartannat år.

We replace the filter every other year. vartannat (neuter, because år is an ett-word) = 'every second.'

Multiplicatives: dubbelt, gånger

For "double / triple" and "N times," Swedish uses:

dubbelt ("double"), tredubbelt ("triple"), fyrdubbelt ("quadruple") — dubbelt så stor ("twice as big"), dubbelt så mycket ("twice as much").
en gång, två gånger, tre gånger — "once, twice, three times." For comparisons of size/amount, the pattern is N gånger så + adjective: tre gånger så stor ("three times as big").

Note that "twice" is två gånger — there is no single word like English twice or thrice; you count the gånger ("times").

Den nya lägenheten är tre gånger så stor som den gamla.

The new flat is three times as big as the old one. tre gånger så stor = 'three times as big' — N gånger så + adjective + som.

Jag har sagt det två gånger redan.

I've said it twice already. två gånger = 'twice' — Swedish counts the 'times,' there's no one-word 'twice.'

Det kostar dubbelt så mycket nu som förra året.

It costs twice as much now as last year. dubbelt så mycket = 'twice as much.'

Common Mistakes

❌ Det kom femtiotal personer. (no article)

Incorrect — the approximating -tal noun needs its article: ett femtiotal.

✅ Det kom ett femtiotal personer.

About fifty people came.

❌ Han föddes på ett sextiotal. (meaning 'in the sixties')

Wrong sense — ett sextiotal means 'about sixty.' For the decade you need the definite -talet.

✅ Han föddes på sextiotalet.

He was born in the sixties (1960s) — definite -talet marks the decade.

❌ Jag tränar var andra dag.

Incorrect — 'every other' is the single word varannan, not var + andra split apart.

✅ Jag tränar varannan dag.

I work out every other day.

❌ Den är tre gånger större som den gamla.

Incorrect — the comparison is N gånger SÅ stor SOM, not 'större som.'

✅ Den är tre gånger så stor som den gamla.

It's three times as big as the old one.

❌ en par dagar

Incorrect — it's always ett par (neuter), never en par.

✅ ett par dagar

a couple of days.

Key Takeaways

The -tal suffix is a productive "roughly N" machine: ett tiotal, ett tjugotal, ett femtiotal, ett hundratal — systematic where English just says "around / some."
Plural -tal (hundratals, tusentals) = "hundreds of / thousands of," indefinite large quantities.
Decade trap: definite -talet means a decade (sextiotalet = "the 1960s"); indefinite ett sextiotal means "about sixty."
Collectives take a bare plural noun: ett dussin ägg, ett par dagar — and it's always ett par, never en par.
Distributives: varje ("every"), var tredje ("every third"), varannan/vartannat ("every other"). Multiplicatives: dubbelt så stor, tre gånger så stor (N gånger så
- adjective + som); "twice" is två gånger.

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