Learn Hardcore Swedish: Kan du ge mig boken?

Jag does the action:
- Jag ger dig boken. = I give you the book.
Mig receives the action:
- Kan du ge mig boken? = Can you give me the book?

In this sentence, du is the subject (the one who gives), and mig is the indirect object (the one who receives), so mig is correct.

Why is it boken and not en bok?

En bok means a book (indefinite), while boken means the book (definite).

Swedish usually puts the definiteness ending on the noun:

en bok = a book
boken = the book
flera böcker = several books
böckerna = the books

In Kan du ge mig boken?, the speaker is talking about a specific, already known book, so the definite form boken is used.

Why is the word order Kan du ge mig boken and not Du kan ge mig boken?

In yes/no questions, Swedish usually inverts the order and puts the verb first:

Statement: Du kan ge mig boken. = You can give me the book.
Question: Kan du ge mig boken? = Can you give me the book?

This follows the V2 rule (verb-second) plus inversion in questions:

In a statement, the finite verb (here kan) is in second position, after the subject:
- [Du] [kan] ge mig boken.
In a yes/no question, the finite verb comes first, before the subject:
- [Kan] [du] ge mig boken?

So the inversion (verb before subject) is what makes it a question.

Could I say Ger du mig boken? instead? What’s the difference?

You can say Ger du mig boken?, but the nuance is slightly different:

Kan du ge mig boken?
- Literally: Can you give me the book?
- Used very commonly as a polite request.
Ger du mig boken?
- Literally: Are you giving me the book?
- Can be:
  - a real-time question about what is happening, or
  - a more direct request, sometimes sounding a bit more insistent, depending on tone.

For everyday polite requests, Kan du ge mig boken? is more neutral and typical.

Is Kan du ge mig boken? polite, or does it sound too direct?

It is generally perfectly polite and normal in everyday spoken Swedish, especially among friends, family, or colleagues.

For extra politeness or formality, Swedes often soften it more, for example:

Skulle du kunna ge mig boken?
= Would you be able to give me the book?
Kan du vara snäll och ge mig boken?
= Can you be kind and give me the book?

But in most casual situations, Kan du ge mig boken? is fine and not rude.

Can I drop the subject and just say Kan ge mig boken?

No. In modern standard Swedish, you almost always need an explicit subject.

Kan du ge mig boken? = correct
✗ Kan ge mig boken? = ungrammatical in standard Swedish

Swedish does not normally drop the subject the way some languages do (like Spanish or Italian). You need du here.

What’s the difference between mig and mej?

Mig is the standard written form.

Mej is a common informal spelling that reflects the typical pronunciation.

Pronunciation:

mig is usually pronounced roughly like "may" (in standard speech), often transcribed /mɛj/.
In careful or older style, you might hear /miːg/, but that’s less common in everyday speech.

In Kan du ge mig boken?, you would write mig, but many people would pronounce it like mej.

How do you pronounce ge and du in this sentence?

Approximate pronunciations:

ge
- IPA: /jeː/
- Roughly like English "yeah" but with a longer vowel and no final consonant; a bit like "yeh" with a long e.
du
- IPA: /dʉː/
- The u is a front rounded vowel, not exactly like English "oo". It’s somewhere between French u in tu and German ü in für.

The whole sentence Kan du ge mig boken? roughly:

[kan duː jeː mɛj ˈbuːkɛn]
(stress on bo in boken)

Why is the pronoun mig placed before boken and not after it?

Swedish normally puts short object pronouns (mig, dig, honom, henne, den, det, oss, er, dem) before the noun object when both occur:

Kan du ge mig boken?
= Can you give me the book?

This is the usual order:
[verb] + [indirect object pronoun] + [direct object noun]

However, if you use a full prepositional phrase instead of a pronoun, the order can change:

Kan du ge boken till mig?
(literally: Can you give the book to me?)

Both ge mig boken and ge boken till mig are correct; the first is more compact and very common.

What’s the difference between ge mig boken and ge boken till mig?

They mean almost the same thing:

Kan du ge mig boken?
- Pattern: verb + indirect object pronoun + direct object.
- Very common and natural.
Kan du ge boken till mig?
- Pattern: verb + direct object + prepositional phrase (till mig).
- Slightly more explicit or emphatic on to me, but still normal.

Both are correct. With pronouns, the ge mig boken structure is more typical in everyday speech.

Can this sentence mean “Will you give me the book?” even though it uses kan (can)?

Yes. In many contexts, Kan du ge mig boken? is understood as a request, not a literal question about ability.

Just like in English “Can you pass me the salt?”, Swedish uses kan du… for polite requests, where the real meaning is closer to “Will you / Would you” than to strictly “Are you able to”.

If you want it clearly more hypothetical or polite, you’d use:

Skulle du kunna ge mig boken?
= Would you be able to give me the book?

Is boken one word because Swedish doesn’t use a separate word for “the”?

Exactly. Swedish usually marks definiteness with an ending on the noun, not with a separate article like the in English.

For en-words (common gender):

en bok = a book
boken = the book

For ett-words (neuter):

ett hus = a house
huset = the house

So boken is bok + -en (the definite ending for an en-word).