Nouns

Nouns are the most complex category in terms of pitch accent changes. For the sake of simplicity, this analysis focuses on nouns consisting of one or two syllables, though it also covers a few small groups of exceptions that also happen to include words with more than two syllables. It also excludes:

• nouns that do not have a plural (such as kött)
• nouns that do not inflect (such as stadion)
• nouns that have a prefix (such as översättning)
• compound nouns (such as verkstad)
• null-plural nouns (those whose indefinite plural is the same as the indefinite singular, such as ljus)

Note

The definite plural will always have the same accent as the indefinite plural, so there is no column for it in the following tables.

Nouns with more than 2 syllables

Except for the small groups of exceptions listed at the end of this page, nouns with more than two syllables have a stable accent. Many of these nouns are prefixed or compound nouns, and prefixes and compound words attched to the beginning of a base noun trigger the same behavior as they do in verbs and adjectives.

2-syllable nouns

There is a very clear division along gender lines, where only common-gender nouns can possibly shift from acute to grave in the plural. Even then, the nouns that do have a shifting pitch accent pattern make up less than 5%.

gender	pattern	count	% of 2-syl nouns	% by gender
common	stable	2806	90.23%	95.54%
common	acute to grave	131	4.21%	4.46%
neuter	stable	173	5.56%	100%

Note

The number of neuter nouns excluded from this count for being null-plural is about 300.

Stable accent

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.
k ↗ o m p i s	k ↗ o m p i s e n	k ↗ o m p i s a r
b u t ↗ i k	b u t ↗ i k e n	b u t ↗ i k e r
s p ↗ e g ↘ e l	s p ↗ e g ↘ e l n	s p ↗ e g l ↘ a r
p r o j ↗ e k t	p r o j ↗ e k t e t	p r o j ↗ e k t (def. p r o j ↗ e k t e n )

Shifting accent (131)

Notably, all of the days of the week are in this group. The remainder appear to be mostly nouns ending in unstressed -er, -en, -el in their dictionary form.

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.
l ↗ ö r d a g	l ↗ ö r d a g e n	l ↗ ö r d ↘ a g a r
↗ ö k e n	↗ ö k n e n	↗ ö k n ↘ a r
t ↗ i t e l	t ↗ i t e l n	t ↗ i t l ↘ a r
f j ↗ ä d e r	f j ↗ ä d e r n	f j ↗ ä d r ↘ a r

2-syllable common-gender nouns with acute-to-grave shift in plural (131)

angel, apel, basker, bibel, blinker, blunder, botten, braxen, buffel, bunker, bäver, ceder, cykel, cykel, dager, diesel, drummel, dumper, däxel, ejder, ester, feber, fjäder, flipper, fläder, fredag, fröken, fågel, födsel, gaffel, gangster, gavel, gejser, gletscher, hamster, hassel, hummer, hyvel, häger, iller, joker, jumper, kabel, klammer, klädsel, koster, krater, kummel, kägel, lager, laser, lever, lördag, mangel, mickel, middag, mixer, monter, mutter, myrten, måndag, nagel, näver, ockel, onsdag, orden, oxel, paddel, panter, papel, pimpel, pixel, poppel, poster, puckel, pudel, putter, riksdag, sabel, sadel, salsa, scanner, schackel, schäfer, sedel, seger, server, setter, singel, skiffer, skoter, skovel, skvader, sliper, slåtter, snabel, sockel, socken, spackel, speaker, spjuver, styrman, styver, stövel, sura, svåger, söndag, taffel, tanker, thriller, tiger, tisdag, titel, toffel, torsdag, trailer, trimmer, tryffel, utter, vagel, vajer, vardag, vesper, vigsel, vinter, växel, ytter, åder, åker, ålder, öken

Monosyllabic nouns

gender	pattern	count	% of 1-syl nouns	% by gender
common	acute to grave	1051	86.22%	88.32%
common	stable	139	11.4%	11.68%
neuter	stable	29	2.38%	100%

The same gender split seen in the 2-syllable nouns occurs here as well, with the minority of common-gender nouns with a stable pitch accent being about the same number.

Note

The number of neuter nouns here looks very low because null-plural nouns were excluded, and most neuter monosyllabic nouns are null-plural.

Common-gender nouns with a stable pitch pattern

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.
k l o	k l o n	k l o r
h a n d	h ↗ a n d e n	h ↗ ä n d e r
m a n	m ↗ a n n e n	m ↗ ä n
b ö r d	b ↗ ö r d e n	b ↗ ö r d

Monosyllabic common-gender nouns with stable pitch accent (115)

alg, alp, alv, and, back, balt, bask, bok, bomb, bot, brand, britt, bror, cell, dan, djinn, dogm, dom, dront, drus, drös, ek, est, fajt, far, fjord, flank, flört, fot, front, gel, gen, get, got, graf, grek, grep, gränd, gäl, gås, göt, hand, hyf, här, jamb, jon, kelt, khmer, klo, knagg, ko, kopt, krans, kull, kurd, kvidd, kvot, larv, lav, lett, lupp, länd, man, mark, med, miss, mor, mus, natt, nerv, norm, nubb, nöt, ort, peng, plomb, podd, por, putt, rand, rom, romb, rot, rå, sak, sard, schakt, scout, serb, sko, skyt, slav, spann, spasm, spor, spång, stad, strand, stång, sval, sven, tand, tank, tent, term, tjeck, tom, tromb, tå, tång, udd, van, vas, ven, vrå

Exceptions

There are some unusual patterns in nouns derived from Latin with the endings -ik, -ium/-eum, -tor/-sor, as well as some isolated anomalies.

Anomalies

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.	note
k ↗ a n s l e r	k ↗ a n s l e r n	k a n s l ↗ e r e r	position of stress moves forward
k ↗ o n s ↘ u l	k ↗ o n s ↘ u l n	k o n s ↗ u l e r	grave to acute; stress moves forward

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.	note
bror (= b r ↗ o d ↘ e r )	b r ↗ o d ↘ e r n	b r ↗ ö d e r	grave to acute
far (= f ↗ a d ↘ e r )	f ↗ a d ↘ e r n	f ↗ ä d e r	grave to acute
mor (= m ↗ o d ↘ e r )	m ↗ o d ↘ e r n	m ↗ ö d r ↘ a r	“hidden” grave accent

Nouns in -tor/-sor (34)

The grave accent shifts to acute in the plural, but the primary stressed syllable shifts forward by one.

sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.
a c c e l e r ↗ a t ↘ o r	a c c e l e r ↗ a t ↘ o r n	a c c e l e r a t ↗ o r e r
d ↗ a t ↘ o r	d ↗ a t ↘ o r n	d a t ↗ o r e r
p r o f ↗ e s s ↘ o r	p r o f ↗ e s s ↘ o r n	p r o f e s s ↗ o r e r

Nouns in -tor/-sor (34)

agitator, arrendator, dator, diktator, doktor, donator, faktor, kalkylator, kantor, katalysator, kiropraktor, kommentator, konditor, koordinator, kurator, lektor, mentor, moderator, motor, pastor, professor, projektor, radiator, reaktor, rektor, respirator, revisor, sektor, senator, sensor, sponsor, traktor, transformator, transistor

Nouns in -ium/-eum

These are Latin-derived words like museum, solarium, jubileum. The data on these is mixed, but there seems to be a trend toward pronouncing these words with an acute accent rather than a grave accent, as authoritative dictionary sources would suggest. For simplicity, they can be considered to have a stable accent, but do not be surprised if you hear a grave accent in the singular and an acute accent in the plural or all other forms.

Nouns in -ik/-iker

This is quite tricky and somewhat, but not entirely, similar to produce (verb) / produce (noun) in English. These nouns all have stable pitch patterns, but collide in confusing ways. The clearest way to explain this is with some examples:

meaning	sing. indef.	sing. def.	plur. indef.	note
technique	t e k n ↗ i k	t e k n ↗ i k e n	t e k n ↗ i k e r
technician	t ↗ e k n i k e r	t ↗ e k n i k e r n	t ↗ e k n i k e r	null-plural
statistic	s t a t i s t ↗ i k	s t a t i s t ↗ i k e n	s t a t i s t ↗ i k e r
statistician	s t a t i s t ↗ i k e r	s t a t i s t ↗ i k e r n	s t a t ↗ i s t i k e r	null-plural
mathematics	m a t e m a t ↗ i k	m a t e m a t ↗ i k e n	-	singular-only
mathematician	m a t e m ↗ a t i k e r	m a t e m ↗ a t i k e r n	m a t e m ↗ a t i k e r	null-plural

Non-compound -ik nouns that have -iker counterparts (38)

akustik(er), botanik(er), diagnostik(er), dogmatik(er), dramatik(er), estetik(er), etik(er), fysik(er), genetik(er), geopolitik(er), geoteknik(er), grammatik(er), heraldik(er), hermeneutik(er), historik(er), kiropraktik(er), klinik(er), kombinatorik(er), komik(er), kritik(er), logik(er), lyrik(er), matematik(er), mekanik(er), metafysik(er), musik(er), mystik(er), obstetrik(er), patristik(er), polemik(er), politik(er), praktik(er), pyroteknik(er), retorik(er), romantik(er), statistik(er), taktik(er), teknik(er)