Simple Swedish Podcast - #269 - 10 tips för bra svenskt uttal

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Nivå: ~A2-B1 Svårt att uttala rätt på svenska? Här kommer 10 tips för att bli bättre på det! Kom ihåg att du kan använda skuggövningarna på Patreon, och minikursen '5 skuggövningar' på Skool. Lyssna också på avsnitt 82. ------------------- Transkript Hallå där! Välkommen, välkommen till Simple Swedish Podcast. Och idag ska jag prata om ett ämne som kanske är ett av de ämnen som folk frågar mest om.   Och det är också någonting som ofta är kanske det svåraste med att lära sig svenska och kanske en av de svåraste grejerna med att lära sig språk generellt. För mig personligen så har det alltid varit ganska lätt att lära sig och därför tänker jag att jag ska prata om hur man får ett bra uttal.   Innan vi börjar så ska jag tacka Sajjad, Nina och Gabriel för att ni stödjer den här podden på Patreon. Ja, om någon annan också är intresserad av att stödja podden på Patreon så gå till www.patreon.com/swedishlinguist. Det kostar bara 5 euro i månaden och man får tillgång till alla avsnitt, alla transkript till den här podden. Och det är ju ganska många avsnitt vid det här laget så stöd mig gärna på Patreon. Så ja, uttal. Först och främst är ju själva ordet ‘uttal’ ett bra exempel på ett ord som är lite svårt. Inte bara att det har bokstaven u men också att det har en dubbel betoning. Betoning är när man lägger lite extra tyngd på en stavelse. Så i det här ordet uttal har vi betoning på båda stavelserna. Så i ordet uttal har vi två stavelser. “Ut-tal”. “Ut-tal”. En, två. Två stavelser. I ordet..om vi tar ett ord till exempel ‘Sverige’, har vi bara en..har vi betoning på ‘sver’ - Sverige. Så vi har betoning på en stavelse - “SVERR-je”.   Men i uttal har vi betoning på två stavelser. “Ut-tal”.   Vi säger inte “utal”. Nej, vi säger “ut-tal”.   ....för att läsa hela transkriptet till detta och alla andra avsnitt, klicka här!

Hello there! Welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast. Today I will talk about an topic that is one of the topics that is often the hardest part of learning Swedish and maybe one of the hardest things about learning languages in general. Personally, it has always been quite easy to learn. Therefore, I will talk about thank Zajad, Nina and Gabriel for supporting this podcast on Patreon. If anyone else is interested in supporting the podcast on Patreon, go to patreon.com slash Swedish Linguist It only costs 5? every month and you get access to all episodes all transcripts to this podcast and there are quite a lot of episodes in this team so... so yeah, feel free to support me on Patreon

So, yes, pronunciation. And first and foremost, the word pronunciation itself is a good example of a that it has a double emphasis. And emphasis is when you put some extra weight on a column. So here in this word U-tall we have emphasis on both staves. So in the word pronounce we have two staves. pronounce, pronounce, one, two, two staves. Okay? In the word, we take a word for example Sweden, we have emphasis on SVERR, so we have emphasis on one syllable, but in the pronunciation we have emphasis on two syllables, UTAAL, okay?

We don't say UTAAL, no, we say uttal. Okay, and we will get to that first, but I will go through ten different tips for a good and natural pronunciation in Swedish and the first tip is one of maybe the most important of all and that is to listen a lot in Swedish so

it is really quite obvious that you need to listen a lot to get a good pronunciation. Because when you listen a lot, you learn very well how the language sounds. You learn to hear all different sounds. You learn to hear exactly how you pronounce different words. You learn to differentiate between different sounds. between different sounds So... So it is of course very, very important to listen a lot

And then... Then you train your ear so that you can hear if you yourself are saying the right thing or not Because if you have trained listening comprehension, meaning to understand spoken Swedish, then you will be able to hear much of course, to speak correctly. And when we are children, or babies, and when we start to speak our mother tongue, when we are two or three years old, but we listen for several years before we start talking. So when I start with a new language, I always try to listen a lot, especially in the beginning. Okay, so the most important thing about a good pronunciation is of course to listen a lot to that language. There are also many aspects of Swedish pronunciation that you can't see when you're reading. So you can't see on the word uttal that we say uttal.

You don't know if it's uttal or uttal or uttal or uttal so you must hear the word to know exactly how to pronounce it because emphasis is very important in Swedish so yes, most important of all is to listen a lot ok, number two is to Okay, to say after someone else, to imitate. Okay, so if you listen to Swedish, try to imitate, imitate, say after what you hear. And it's also good to try to look at how the mouth looks.

One way to practice this is to do so called shadow exercises, shadowing. That means that you try to say a sentence at the same time as you hear it and read it. So you try to say it in the same way as you hear it and read it. So you try to say it in the same way you hear it. And I actually have such exercises. So I have shadow exercises. Every week I upload shadow exercises on Patreon and that is if you are a patron on the 10 euro level then you will get access to these shadow exercises and I also have a little mini course with shadow exercises on school

ok? school.com slash Swedish and it's completely free so you can go to school.com slash Swedish and go to classroom and there you will find a free mini course with shadow exercises

so that was tip number two, to listen. And that might be a bit difficult for some people. Most people don't like to listen to themselves and yes, I personally am very used to listening to myself because of this podcast but before I didn't like to listen to myself either. But it can be a good way to correct your pronunciation.

And it can also be interesting to listen later as well. Say that you record yourself now and listen to it in 6 months or in 1 year, you can hear your own development. So, yes, recording yourself can be good for hearing what you need to improve. what you need to improve. Tip number four is to ask for feedback. Say that you have friends, Swedish friends, you might be able to ask them, is there something I can train with my pronunciation And it's important to not try can correct everything you say.

Don't ask people to correct you all the time, because that's actually really hard and not particularly good. Not good for you, not good for the others. But you can ask for a little more general feedback, so there might be one or two things that I often say wrong. So ask for recurring mistakes, there are things that I often maybe pronounce wrong. Okay, so you can ask people, ask for some feedback. Tip number five is to learn about word accent. And word accent is a concept in the Swedish language and some other languages. And the word accent is called in English pitch accent. And yes, this is what makes Swedish have some melody.

And maybe... there. And maybe, and that is, think about the difference between the words the beaver and the beaver. The beaver, the beaver, the beaver, the beaver. Do you hear the difference? Gripen. Tomten. Okay. Not a big difference, but there is a difference. And it can be interesting to learn about this. And perhaps even more important is emphasis. And word accent and emphasis,

they go hand in hand, so they belong together. There is a connection between word accent and emphasis. Because, for example, in standard Swedish, it's like we have either emphasis on one or two If you want to learn more about accent words, listen to episode 82. In episode 82 I will talk more about accent words and accenting. There are also videos on YouTube. But it can be good to learn a little about how it works. Okay, tip number six. And that is, don't give up, okay?

Because it can be difficult to learn correct pronunciation. And I am, yes, I am often pretty good at pronunciation but sometimes it has been very difficult for me too I remember when I learned Czech and they have a sound that is very difficult R, R And it took several months for me to learn it And I practiced a lot I walked around the streets and practiced and practiced And said Rerisha, Rerisha, Driv, Driv

and stuff like that to practice on this sound and I also remember with arabic, there are many difficult sounds like Q, R, R H, they have two H sounds H and H so there are Rö, hö, they have two h-sounds, hö and hö

So there are many difficult sounds, especially sounds far down in the stem And they also have like, there are two t-sounds, T and D There are many difficult sounds in Arabic and it took a long time to learn But I learned because I didn't give up So it can take time but don't give up Keep practicing, practicing, practicing So it can take time but don't give up, keep practicing Tip number 7 is to be ok with that it feels weird Because when we learn a new language, we will use new sounds

and it just feels a little strange, maybe For example, when I learned Chinese, it felt strange that that I... you have to say certain tones, you have to say certain tones You have to say for example Ni hao I took the easiest word But for example zhong guo You have to say zhong and guo You have to use specific tones

And like... I might be used to using certain tones specifically for a question, for example If I say a question like Is it like that? Is it like that? Is it really like that? Then I use a certain tone for the question But in Chinese you use tones for the meaning of a word

and it might feel weird to say these tones But it's just like that so you have to be ok with that it feels a little weird but after a while it becomes more and more normal ok, that was tip number 7 ok, tip number 8

and now we come to something a little more interesting find your personal connection to the language and find the love about the language becoming a part of you. It has to become personal. Okay? So, for you to speak naturally, with a natural accent, natural pronunciation, then it has to become personal to you. You feel that this, I like this, this feels like me. I have, that you find a love for the language.

You have to have the love to want to, to want to build this connection, this personal connection. So I think that can be very important. And tip number 9 is very related to tip number 8, and that is to find your people. and that is to find your people. And I actually think that this is perhaps the most important thing if you want to sound very natural. If you want to sound like a Swedish, then you need to find your Swedish context or at least get a connection to people in that language

and you can do that without having a group of friends and stuff. But often it helps a lot that you a part of this context, this social context and then you will automatically start to talk more and more like the others in that social context. So that is very interesting because the something. You are a part of something. You belong to home somewhere. I can say that I belong to Sweden. I am a part of Sweden and the Swedes and the Swedish culture, the Swedish context and maybe especially... This actually happened when I moved to Gothenburg. Because I grew up in a small town near Gothenburg. in a small town near Gothenburg. But when I was 21, I think, I moved to Gothenburg.

And my accent changed a little. I started speaking more Goth Gothenburg. Why? Well, probably because I felt more than in Alingsås. Alingsås, the city where I grew up. A small city. So I was surrounded by people from Gothenburg. So I had no friends from Alingsås anymore. My circle of friends, my social context, my social context, was in Gothenburg. And I felt a stronger connection to the people in Gothenburg. So I also started to talking more like them. Not 100% but I, it became a difference,

so I noticed that. And I felt that I liked it. So that is also something to think about. If I want to be a part of this context, then I will probably also talk more in that way. I think it's both about wanting to be a part of it and actually feeling like a part of it. But it's also ok to not want to. And I will continue to speak like a alingsåsare. It's the same thing with other languages, what accent you have on that language And I notice for example in Spanish, I have started to speak step by step, a little more Spanish than Spanish Because when I lived in Barcelona I spoke a little more Latino Spanish A little more general Latino Spanish

But now it's step by step, it become more and more Spanish. And that's just because I live here. It's very interesting, at least, this whole thing. And the last tip is actually, tip number 10, is to be ok with your accent so accept the accent you have it's ok like if people understand you and you feel comfortable, then no problem. It is absolutely not wrong to have an foreign accent. But of course, try to speak with a natural pronunciation and accentuate correctly.

Accentuation is very important in Swedish. So you have to say uttal, not uttal or uttal. Okay? You have to say pronunciation, but if you have a foreign accent, or intonation, no problem. So, you can have a natural pronunciation and also have your personal accent. So that was a bit of what I wanted to talk about in this episode. It was quite improvised, but I hope it was useful. Take care, and I'll see you soon. Bye bye!