This article is from 2015. Please see the updated version of Best Apps for Learning Swedish 2017!
If you have a smart phone or tablet, you are lucky, because Swedish will always be at your fingertips. I’ve gathered a list of websites where you can learn Swedish for free. Today, I’m sharing a list of the best apps for learning Swedish I have found that help me learn this beautiful language. And yep, they are all free (though if you love them, consider supporting the developer and upgrading!)
Apps for Studying Swedish
Sometimes we just need to study a language to learn it. Below are a list of apps that will help you either learn grammar or vocabulary the old fashion way – by studying!
English Swedish Dictionary by bab.la
Having a dictionary is key in learning any language, and I love this bab.la dictionary. Not only can you look up English words in Swedish and vise versa, it comes with phrases you can study as well. The best part is, however, the history section. I don’t know about you, but I usually have to look up words more than one time. With this history section, I can easily see if I looked up this word lately, and I can even decide to memorize these words so I don’t have to look them up again.
This dictionary is free, so definitely worth the download.
GoSwedish – A friendly introduction to Swedish
This fun little app is from the YouTuber GoSwedish. She has an amazing, soft voice, making it fun to learn from her. You can download the free love edition and if you like it, upgrade for $4.00 to 8 full lessons.
Learn Swedish Vocabulary
I love this app. You can download it for free and get two subjects, fruit and weather.
What I love about this app, is that there is very little English involved. In ‘flash card mode’, you will see an image. Say it to yourself in Swedish and then flip the i on the bottom right. You will then see the word in Swedish and English. In ‘game mode’, you will see 3 pictures, and a voice will say a Swedish word. You simply pick the word you here.
These methods will get you to memorize the items in Swedish instead of translating it in your head from English to Swedish. The closest thing you will get to emersion!
If you want to upgrade, it is $5.99 and you will get 250 flash cards plus you will be able to create other flash cards as well. Definitely worth it when you are ready to start building up your Swedish vocabulary.
Learn Swedish Verbs
Ok, so we got something for vocabulary, what about learning Swedish verbs? Do not sweat, there is a great app for that as well. Learn Swedish Verbs by LearnBots is exactly what you need to learn your verbs and all of their tenses.
The only issue with this app is that you can tell it was made for other languages. Swedish verbs don’t change depending on the pronoun, so once you know the conjugation for one pronoun in the tense, you know it for all. Of course, there are always some irregulars just to throw us off 🙂
The free version only gives you the first dozen or so verbs in the alphabet. To get all of them, you can pay $3.99 to upgrade.
Swedish by Nemo
If you like stats, this one is fun. It reminds you to learn Swedish every day, and to memorize 8 words every day. You can pick if you want to learn more or less.
This app doesn’t have images, but it does have pronunciation, which is important. With the free app, you will get 101 words. If you want 1200+ words, then you will need to upgrade for $9.99 (which is a bit on the pricy side).
However, if you used this app every day, you will be speaking Swedish in no time!
Other Apps for Learning Swedish
Studying Swedish is great, but did you know that there area lot of apps in Swedish that will help you with your Swedish. Here are some fun apps you can use to learn Swedish that are in Swedish. Keep your dictionary handy if you need to translate a word here or there.
Swedish Crosswords by Svenska Korsord AB
I love Swedish Crosswords! I’m not very good at them, but that is ok. Swedish crossword puzzles are similar to ours, except that the clues are in the puzzle. They are short, and you have to figure out what word goes where.
This is obviously good practice for your Swedish because you will get a lot of random Swedish words you will most likely have to look up. You also may have to look up what you think the answer is.
This app words great, and is free. For me, it will keep me busy for awhile.
Svenska Ordspel
This fun game shows you an image, and you are supposed to spell the Swedish word without error. Once you do 3 without error, you will move on to the next level.
So far I haven’t bother to look up any of the words. For example, I didn’t know how to spell skalbagge, and I had to guess what this word was. This app does let you know if something doesn’t fit, so it is easy to guess.
This is a great way to learn new vocabulary through repetition.
Hänga Gubbe
Do you like Hangman? Well then you will love the Swedish version of hangman! It may be hard because you don’t have all the Swedish vocabulary to guess in a good way, however it is good practice. You will also be surprised how many Swedish words are like English words!
My favorite thing about this app is it is made specifically for Swedish speakers. Meaning you won’t see any English in this app.
Aftonbladet
Aftonbladet is where to get your Swedish news. And yes, they do come with a free app. This is a great place to read Swedish regularly, whether it is sports, news, finance, travel or any other section that may interest you. They also have a TV section where you can watch certain reports.
The free app version is pretty amazing. They do have Aftonbladet Plus if you want to upgrade, but the free version will give you tons of reading options, easily. Not only that, but if you let it give you notifications, you will get different news notifications, reminding you to read Swedish regularly!
Omni News
This is another Swedish news app, very similar to Aftonbladet. The news channel itself is actually Canadian, but it is translated into various languages, including Swedish. Their slogan is that they show news from all sides. I have no idea how true that is, but it is another way to get Swedish news, as well as international news in Swedish.
Sveriges Radio
There is nothing like listening to the Swedish Radio. This app gives you various radio stations of Sweden. You can listen to music, news, interviews, opinions, and the like. I love listening to music in Swedish while I’m working. You do get some practice when the DJs come on and are talking about the songs or the news.
These are the top apps for learning Swedish, at least for the iPhone and iPad. I unfortunately don’t have an android, however I bet you can find these for an android as well.
Am I missing anything? What are your favorite apps for learning Swedish?
Reaaly useful post!
I’m a begginer in swedish and I miss children’s books to learn basic words, etc…
Here in Brazil is hard to find books, and you show a lot of options!
Tanx 😉
Those look well worth a look, thank you.
I’m using Duolingo right now. It offers a lot for a free app … practice listening, practice typing, automatic return to the ones you get wrong and progress through several levels. If you don’t understand something, click through to an explanation and discussion boards.
It’s been the best refresher I’ve come across.
You should try duo lingo, an amazing app and website to learn swedish.
It is an ok app. When I used it I noticed that they got wrong “Hur ar det”. When apps specialize in multiple languages, usually they have errors on more unusual languages. Just what I have found.
So how should it be said? I’m learning swedish on duolingo and I’d like to know the correct version. 🙂
Hur är det? = How are you?
You can see also this app for kids that contains some basic words, numbers and colors.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lettersnumberscolorssweden
Thanks for the share George!
I used the Babbel app to start learning Swedish and thought it was pretty good. It’s not free, but easily worked on my Iphone. Your thoughts on Babbel?
Hey Swedish freak – just a note on Duolingo – it was probably a bug that they have now fixed. It’s pretty rare for errors to be in Duolingo, but if they are (and they legitimately ERRORS that shouldn’t be there), you can report them and they get removed.
One shouldn’t mistake Duolingo for being a multiple languages platform, because in practice it isn’t – each course has at least 4 or 5 developers who are natives in the target language and fluent in whatever language the course comes it from (so, in this case, native Swedes who of course speak English) – and they discuss at length what should and shouldn’t be in there. They are also very careful about the English translations, for example, the Swedish for “The advantages are more than the disadvantages”, for that, they will accept “The advantages outweigh the disadvantages” because they know that this is how we would actually say it in English. So if you mean that they wrote “Hur ar det?” instead of “Hur är det?”, then they will have fixed it by now. But mainly, like I say, each course is developed separately so it’s not a “multiple languages” platform in the sense you mean.
Thanks! I’m planning on updating this post soon since there are new apps out there!