The subject pronoun is the word that does the acting in a sentence — the "I," "you," "he," "she," "we," "they." Swedish has a tidy set, and learning it is unusually high-value for one reason: Swedish verbs do not change for person. Where English has I am / he is / they are and Spanish has soy / es / son, Swedish has just är for all of them — jag är, han är, de är. The pronoun is therefore the only thing that tells you who the subject is. Learn these eleven words well and you have effectively learned Swedish "conjugation," because there is almost nothing else to it.
The full set
| Person | Swedish | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | jag | I |
| 2nd singular | du | you (one person) |
| 3rd sg. masculine | han | he |
| 3rd sg. feminine | hon | she |
| 3rd sg. gender-neutral | hen | they (singular) / he-or-she |
| 3rd sg. inanimate (en-word) | den | it |
| 3rd sg. inanimate (ett-word) | det | it |
| generic / impersonal | man | one / you / people |
| 1st plural | vi | we |
| 2nd plural | ni | you (plural) |
| 3rd plural | de | they |
Jag är trött, men du är pigg.
I'm tired, but you're energetic. Same verb är for both — only the pronoun changes.
Han är lärare och hon är läkare.
He is a teacher and she is a doctor. han = he, hon = she — note no 'en' before the profession in Swedish.
Vi är hemma, men de är på jobbet.
We are home, but they are at work. vi = we, de = they — again, är for everyone.
du and ni: addressing people
du is "you" to one person; ni is "you" to more than one. Unlike many European languages, modern Swedish uses du for almost everyone — friends, strangers, your boss, even your doctor. This informal du is the default thanks to the du-reform of the late 1960s–70s, which swept away an older, fussier system of titles and polite address.
Hej, vad heter du?
Hi, what's your name? du is the normal, polite way to address one person in modern Swedish.
Vill ni sitta vid fönstret?
Would you (plural) like to sit by the window? ni = you, more than one person.
You will sometimes see a capitalized Ni used as a singular polite form (the old "formal you," like German Sie or French vous). Today this is (archaic) to (formal) and can even sound stiff or old-fashioned — many Swedes find it odd or distancing. Stick with du unless you are deliberately writing in a very formal, old-style register.
Önskar Ni något mer? (very formal/old-fashioned waiter speech)
Do you wish for anything more? Singular polite Ni — (formal/archaic); most Swedes use du even here.
hen: the gender-neutral pronoun
hen is the established gender-neutral third-person singular. Use it when gender is unknown or irrelevant, and for non-binary people. It is fully standard — added to the official word list (SAOL) in 2015 — and it supplements han and hon rather than replacing them.
Om en student är sjuk ska hen kontakta läraren.
If a student is ill, they should contact the teacher. hen = a single person of unspecified gender.
It has its own page with full detail: The gender-neutral pronoun hen.
den and det: "it" by gender
Swedish has no single word for "it." For an inanimate thing, you choose by the noun's grammatical gender: den for common-gender (en-) nouns, det for neuter (ett-) nouns.
Var är bilen? Den står i garaget.
Where's the car? It's in the garage. bil is an en-word, so 'it' = den.
Var är brevet? Det ligger på bordet.
Where's the letter? It's on the table. brev is an ett-word, so 'it' = det.
det also serves as a dummy/placeholder subject in weather and existential sentences, much like English "it" in "it's raining":
Det regnar och det är kallt ute.
It's raining and it's cold outside. det as a placeholder subject — there's no real 'thing' it refers to.
de — written one way, said another
de is "they" (subject). And here is the single most notorious thing about Swedish pronouns: de is almost always pronounced "dom" in ordinary speech. So is the object form dem. In casual writing — texts, chats, social media — many Swedes simply spell it dom to match how it sounds.
De bor i Malmö nu. (spoken: 'Dom bor i Malmö nu.')
They live in Malmö now. Written de, but you'll always hear 'dom'.
Dom kommer imorgon. (informal written form)
They're coming tomorrow. dom = the spoken/informal spelling of de.
This spoken merger is the root of the famous de / dem / dom problem: in speech de (subject) and dem (object) sound identical ("dom"), so even native Swedes struggle to spell them correctly. As a learner you actually have an edge here — if you learn de = subject and dem = object by their grammatical role, you can spell them more reliably than many natives who go by ear. The full guide is de, dem or dom.
Common Mistakes
❌ Dem bor i Stockholm. (for 'They live in Stockholm')
Incorrect — the subject 'they' is de, not dem. (Both sound like 'dom', which is the trap.)
✅ De bor i Stockholm.
They live in Stockholm.
❌ Var är huset? Den är stort. (for 'It is big')
Incorrect — hus is an ett-word, so 'it' = det, not den.
✅ Var är huset? Det är stort.
Where's the house? It is big.
❌ Jag är, du äter, han ätar… (inventing person endings)
Incorrect — Swedish verbs don't take person endings. The verb form never changes for who the subject is.
✅ Jag äter, du äter, han äter.
I eat, you eat, he eats — one form for all persons.
❌ Using Ni as the normal polite 'you' to a stranger
Outdated — singular Ni now sounds stiff or old-fashioned. Modern Swedish uses du with almost everyone.
✅ Vad heter du?
What's your name? — du is the standard, polite address.
Key Takeaways
- The set: jag, du, han, hon, hen, den, det, man, vi, ni, de.
- Swedish verbs do not conjugate for person — the pronoun carries all the "who" information, so subject pronouns are the whole story.
- du is "you" to one person and is the normal polite form for nearly everyone; ni is plural "you." Singular Ni is (formal/archaic) and now sounds stiff.
- hen is the standard gender-neutral pronoun; den / det are "it," chosen by en- vs ett-gender; det also works as a dummy subject (Det regnar).
- de ("they") is pronounced — and often informally written — dom; the spoken merger of de and dem into "dom" is the source of the de/dem spelling problem. Orthography: keep written de (subject) vs dem (object) distinct.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Swedish Pronouns: OverviewA1 — A map of the whole Swedish pronoun system — subject and object personal pronouns, the reflexive sig and the reflexive possessives sin/sitt/sina, the generic man, the gender-neutral hen, the inanimate den/det, demonstratives, relatives, and indefinites — with the two big hurdles (sin vs hans/hennes, and den/det for 'it') flagged up front.
- Object PronounsA1 — The Swedish object personal pronouns — mig, dig, honom, henne, hen, den, det, en, oss, er, dem — used after verbs and after prepositions. Includes the spoken forms (mig/dig/sig = mej/dej/sej, dem = 'dom') and why the spoken collapse of de and dem makes the written distinction hard even for natives.
- The Gender-Neutral Pronoun henB1 — hen is Swedish's gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun — used when gender is unknown or irrelevant, and for non-binary people. It is fully standard (added to the official word list in 2015), has the object form hen and possessive hens, and supplements rather than replaces han and hon. Unlike contested English singular 'they', hen is officially sanctioned, so learners can use it with confidence.
- de vs dem vs dom: The Great DebateB1 — Sweden's single most argued-about grammar point: de is the subject 'they', dem is the object 'them', but in speech BOTH are pronounced 'dom' — which is why even native writers mix them up. The reliable fix is the han/honom test: if 'he' fits, write de; if 'him' fits, write dem. This page gives you the test, the spoken dom, and the ongoing reform debate.
- The Present Tense: No Person AgreementA1 — The single most liberating fact about Swedish verbs: the present tense has ONE form for every subject. No -s on the third person, no special plural — jag arbetar, du arbetar, han arbetar, vi arbetar, de arbetar, all identical. And because Swedish has no progressive ('-ing') tense, that one form covers both English 'I work' AND 'I am working', and can even point to the near future.