Tools and Instruments with "Med"
The preposition med (with) is used to express the instrument or tool you use to perform an action. This applies to everyday objects as well as your own body parts.
| The man points at the house with the cane. | Mannen pekar på huset med käppen. |
| You should not point with your finger. | Du ska inte peka med fingret. |
When talking about body parts, Swedish usually uses the definite form (like huvudet for "the head" or foten for "the foot") rather than a possessive pronoun ("my", "his", "her") as long as it is obvious who the body part belongs to.
| The boss nods his head. | Chefen nickar med huvudet. |
| The boy kicks the ball with his foot. | Pojken sparkar bollen med foten. |
Gestures and Movement
Certain actions like nodding or waving also use med. While in English you might just "wave a flag" or "nod your head," Swedish frames this as performing the motion with the object or body part.
| The audience waves the flag. | Publiken viftar med flaggan. |
Physical Contact: Using "På"
When describing exactly where physical contact happens on a body—such as patting a pet or scratching an itch—use the preposition på (on), followed by the definite form of the body part.
| The boy pats the cat on its back. | Pojken klappar katten på ryggen. |
You can easily combine på (for the location of the touch) and med (for the instrument used) in the same sentence:
| He scratches his back with a pen. | Han kliar sig på ryggen med en penna. |
Aches and Pains
Finally, to express that a body part hurts, Swedish uses the phrase har ont i (literally "have pain in"), followed again by the definite form of the body part.
| My back hurts. | Jag har ont i ryggen. |