{"id":5765,"date":"2026-02-17T12:21:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/edci336\/2026\/02\/17\/free-inquiry-2-sounding-swedish-a-a-and-of-course-a\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:21:41","slug":"free-inquiry-2-sounding-swedish-a-a-and-of-course-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechuvic.ca\/edci336\/2026\/02\/17\/free-inquiry-2-sounding-swedish-a-a-and-of-course-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Inquiry #2: Sounding Swedish \u2013 a, \u00e5, and of course, \u00e4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image from https:\/\/www.tallink.com\/destinations\/sweden<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hej! Hur m\u00e5r du? Jag m\u00e5r bra.<\/strong> (Hi! How are you? I\u2019m good).<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t made an inquiry blog post for a while, but that doesn\u2019t mean I haven\u2019t been busy inquiring into Swedish language and culture. I\u2019m approaching a month into my language learning journey \u2013 I just notched my 25th day of Duolingo. I\u2019ve been aiming for one mini lesson a day, which takes me around 5 minutes. I\u2019m definitely making progress, but slowly. <\/p>\n

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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Duolingo\u2019s approach is interesting in that it teaches individual words and phrases<\/strong>, but no grammar. I find myself wondering about syntax a lot\u2026 for example, I\u2019ve gathered that sometimes, the \u201ca\u201d before a noun in Swedish is \u201cen,\u201d and other times, it\u2019s \u201cett.\u201d I couldn\u2019t figure out the pattern, so I looked it up. And turns out, there isn\u2019t much of a pattern at all. Unlike in English, where \u201ca\u201d precedes a word starting with a consonant and \u201can\u201d precedes a vowel, Swedish speakers have to memorize when to use each version. \u201cEn\u201d is more common (which I\u2019d already gathered from seeing it pop up frequently in my Duolingo lessons), and \u201cett\u201d is only used 25% of the time. Often, \u201cett\u201d belongs with non-living things and \u201cen\u201d with living things, like \u201cen hund\u201d (a dog).<\/p>\n

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AI overview<\/strong> for the search query, \u201cdifference between en and ett in Swedish\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Thanks, AI overview!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed that Duolingo\u2019s approach to teaching languages seems to rely on users gradually picking up words and phrases and filling in the blanks using pattern recognition. There\u2019s no explicit teaching, which honestly, I might appreciate. I would love to learn how Swedish works phonetically, like, What is the difference between a, \u00e4, and \u00e5 in terms of sounding out a word? <\/em>I think some knowledge of the phonemes that make up the Swedish language could be helpful as I approach unfamiliar words like place names (e.g., I don\u2019t want to embarrass myself by majorly mispronouncing someone\u2019s hometown or the name of a train station I\u2019m trying to get to).<\/p>\n

New words and phrases unlocked<\/h2>\n