Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

The preposition **av** is a very versatile word in Swedish. While it often translates to "of" in English, in this lesson we will focus on two specific everyday uses: describing what objects are made of, and specifying parts of a larger whole.

### Made of: Material Composition

When you want to say that an object is made of a certain material, use **av** followed by the material. You can think of it as saying "made of" or "out of".

{{item:912259}}

This pattern works for all kinds of materials, whether you are talking about clothing—like wool (*ull*), cotton (*bomull*), or silk (*silke*)—or building materials like concrete (*betong*) and steel (*stål*).

{{item:912263}}

{{item:912271}}

You can also use this structure to describe a noun directly within a sentence, just like saying "a table of glass" in English:

{{item:912260}}

### Parts of a Whole

You also use **av** to link a specific part, edge, or side to the larger object it belongs to. The pattern is exactly like English:

**The part + *av* + The whole**

{{item:912277}}

Use this structure with positional nouns like *kanten* (the edge), *framsidan* (the front), or *baksidan* (the back). Notice that both the part and the whole are usually in their definite forms (e.g., *kanten*, *bordet*):

{{item:912280}}

{{item:912283}}

{{item:912286}}

Material composition and parts of a whole (av)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite ending (barnet, hunden)

Indefinite articles and -ar verbs (en, ett)

Basic word order

Singular adjectives (stor, stort)

Plural adjectives (-a)

Sentence negation (inte)

Yes/No questions

Basic question words (vad, vem, var)

Regular Group 2 verbs (-er)

Short verbs and irregulars (har, gör)

The infinitive marker (att)

Modal verbs (kan, vill, måste, får)

Future intention (ska)

Time adverbs (imorgon, igår)

Word order inversion

Adverbs of frequency (ibland, aldrig)

Everyday things (dörren, stolen, tåget)

Definite suffix spelling changes

Plural nouns Group 1 and 2 (-or, -ar)

Plural nouns Group 3 (-er, -r)

Neuter indefinite plurals

Definite plural suffixes (-na, -a, -en)

Object pronouns (mig, dig, oss)

Reflexive pronouns (sig)

Expanded question words (när, varför)

Which and what (vilken, vilket, vilka)

Coordinating conjunctions (men, eller, för)

Prepositions of place (i, på, till, från)

Quantifiers (mycket, många)

Indefinite pronouns (någon, något, några)

First and second person possessives (min, din, vår, er)

Third person possessives (hans, hennes, dess, deras)

Reflexive possessives (sin, sitt, sina)

The genitive (-s)

Adjectives before singular nouns

Adjectives before plural nouns (-a)

Double definiteness (den, det, de)

Demonstratives (den här, det här, de här)

The imperative mood

Past tense of vara and ha (var, hade)

Possessives for names (-s)

Definite plural adjectives (de ... -a)

Genitive case for names (-s)

Numbers 1 to 10 (en, två, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (elva till tjugo)

Counting by tens to 100 (trettio, fyrtio...)

Days of the week (måndag, tisdag...)

Months of the year (januari, februari...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (första, andra...)

Greetings and politeness (hej, tack, förlåt)

Particle verbs of direction (gå ut, komma in)

Simple past: Group 1 (-ade)

Simple past: Group 2a (-de)

Simple past: Group 2b (-te)

Simple past: Group 3 (-dde)

Simple past: Group 4

Present perfect: Groups 1 and 2 (har)

Present perfect: Groups 3 and 4

Past perfect (hade)

Future predictions (kommer att)

Future with present tense

The adjective small (liten, litet, små)

Demonstratives of distance (den där, det där, de där)

Negative pronouns (ingen, inget, inga)

Universal pronouns (all, allt, alla)

The generic pronoun (man, en)

Possessive generic pronoun (ens)

Reciprocal pronoun (varandra)

Qualitative pronouns (sådan, sådant, sådana)

Habitual time expressions (på)

Specific past time expressions (i)

Past time expressions (för ... sedan)

Future time expressions (om)

Location and motion adverbs (här/hit, där/dit)

Consequences (så)

Correlative conjunctions (både ... och)

Either and neither (antingen ... eller, varken ... eller)

Verbs of opinion and belief (tycker, tror, tänker)

Subordinate clauses (att, om)

Time clauses (när, innan, medan)

Clauses of cause (eftersom, därför att)

Negation in subordinate clauses (inte)

V2 word order inversion

Relative clauses as subjects (som)

Relative clauses as objects (som)

Relative clauses for places (där)

Adverbs from adjectives (-t)

Adjective comparative and superlative (-are, -ast)

Question	Answer
the leather	lädret
The jacket is made of leather.	Jackan är av läder.
There is a table made of glass in front of the sofa.	Det finns ett bord av glas framför soffan.
the wool	ullen
the cotton	bomullen
Is that sweater made of wool or cotton?	Är den där tröjan av ull eller bomull?
The blanket on the bed is made of wool.	Filten på sängen är av ull.
The shirt is made of cotton.	Skjortan är av bomull.
Both the dress and the trousers are made of cotton.	Både klänningen och byxorna är av bomull.
the steel	stålet
The knife is made of steel.	Kniven är av stål.
There is a statue made of steel behind the church.	Det finns en staty av stål bakom kyrkan.
the concrete	betongen
The wall is made of concrete.	Muren är av betong.
Is the bridge made of concrete or steel?	Är bron av betong eller stål?
the silk	silket
The scarf is made of silk.	Halsduken är av silke.
There is a beautiful table made of wood in the room.	Det finns ett vackert bord av trä i rummet.
the beginning	början
I am reading the beginning of the book.	Jag läser början av boken.
The beginning of the film is very exciting.	Början av filmen är mycket spännande.
the edge	kanten
The glass is standing on the edge of the table.	Glaset står på kanten av bordet.
He is standing on the edge of the bridge.	Han står på kanten av bron.
the front	framsidan
The door is on the front of the house.	Dörren är på framsidan av huset.
You must write your name on the front of the document.	Du måste skriva ditt namn på framsidan av dokumentet.
the back (of an object)	baksidan
There is a garden at the back of the house.	Det finns en trädgård på baksidan av huset.
I am reading the information on the back of the ticket.	Jag läser informationen på baksidan av biljetten.
The jacket is made of leather and the scarf is made of silk.	Jackan är av läder och halsduken är av silke.