Why Swedish Has En and Ett Words

If you’ve started learning Swedish, you’ve already met one of the language’s most persistent little mystery: why are some nouns en words while others are ett words? Why is it en bok (a book) but ett hus (a house)? And more importantly, how are you supposed to remember which is which?

In this post, you’ll get a quick look at the history of Swedish grammatical gender and how the modern system functions. The good news: there’s some logic behind the system, even if it doesn’t always show itself right away. The bad news: you probably won’t find the logic super helpful. Mastering en and ett has far less to do with rigid rules than with exposure and pattern-building.

Start practicing in unit 2 of the Swedish A2 course on Scriva. Read on below, and then checkout frågelådan (the question box) if you want to dig deeper.

A Brief History: From Three Genders to Two

A thousand years ago, Old Norse had three grammatical genders:

• Masculine

• Feminine

• Neuter

This is similar to modern German (der, die, das) or Icelandic today. But over time, something interesting happened in Swedish: the masculine and feminine genders gradually merged. By the late Middle Ages, everyday spoken Swedish had reduced three genders down to two:

• Common gender (a merger of masculine + feminine)

• Neuter gender (the old neuter)

This is why modern Swedish uses two indefinite articles:

• en for common gender nouns

• ett for neuter nouns

So the en/ett distinction is a leftover from a much older and more complex system.

How the System Works Today

1. En-words are the majority

Roughly 75% of Swedish nouns are en-words. So if you have to guess, en is statistically safer.

Examples:

• en stol (a chair)

• en stad (a city)

• en idé (an idea)

2. Ett-words are fewer but highly common

Although fewer in number, many ett nouns are high-frequency words.

Examples:

• ett hus (a house)

• ett språk (a language)

• ett barn (a child)

3. Gender affects much more than the article

The gender impacts:

• The indefinite article (en/ett)

• The definite ending (-en or -et)

• Adjective endings (en stor bil vs ett stort hus)

This is why getting the gender right early pays off later.

Is There a Rule? Yes… and No.

There are some patterns that can help you guess if a word is an en-word or an ett-word. But in Swedish these are more like general guidelines rather than deterministic rules.

Pattern 1: Most living beings are en-words

• en man (a man)

• en kvinna (a woman)

• en hund (a dog)

• en lärare (a teacher)

Exceptions exist, but they’re rare (e.g., ett barn, ett djur).

Pattern 2: Most abstract nouns are en-words

Words for ideas, feelings, processes, and qualities:

• en tanke (a thought)

• en frihet (freedom)

• en kunskap (knowledge)

Pattern 3: Many short, concrete one-syllable nouns are ett-words

Especially one-syllable objects:

• ett hus

• ett bord

• ett glas

• ett rum

This isn’t perfect, but it’s reliable enough to help.

Learner tip:
If it’s a simple physical object and very short, guess ett.

Pattern 4: Words ending in specific suffixes are almost always en-words

This is one of the few strong rules. If a noun ends in these suffixes, it’s almost certainly en:

• -het (frihet – freedom)

• -tion (information)

• -else (rörelse - movement)

• -skap (vänskap – friendship)

• -are (lärare – teacher)

These are extremely consistent.

So How Should You Learn En vs Ett?

Don’t learn nouns alone. Learn them with their article. You’re not learning “hus”; you’re learning ett hus. You’re not learning “stad”; you’re learning en stad. If you treat gender like a small daily habit rather than a giant memorization challenge, you’ll get there faster than you think.