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LEARNING SWEDISH

How to think in Swedish: tänka, tro or tycka?

Swedish has at least three different ways of expressing the English word think: tänka, tro and tycka. Learning when to use each of these words correctly is a sure-fire way to sound like a true Swede.

Published: 14 March 2022 15:23 CET
Updated: 29 February 2024 13:28 CET
How to think in Swedish: tänka, tro or tycka?
A quote above the entrance to the Grand Auditorium of the University Main Building in Uppsala. It says "To think freely is great, but to think rightly is greater". Photo: Fredrik Persson/TT

Despite the fact that these words are all translated to “think” in English, choosing the wrong verb in Swedish can change the meaning of what you’re trying to say. 

As a general rule, you should use tänka when talking about the act of thinking, tro when talking about a belief you hold, and tycka when you’re talking about a personal opinion. That might seem confusing, so let’s go into a bit more detail below.

Tänka

The act of thinking

Tänka is the most literal of these three verbs. It describes the act of thinking, such as in sentences like jag tänker på dig (“I’m thinking of you”) or kan du hålla tyst, jag försöker tänka! (“Can you be quiet, I’m trying to think!”)

A future plan

Tänka can also describe something you want to do, as in “I’m thinking of doing [something]” or “I’m considering doing [something]”. Vi tänker gifta oss (“We’re thinking of getting married”), or jag tänker lära mig svenska (“I’m thinking of learning Swedish”).

I’d quite like…

Another way of using the word tänka is to say that an idea appeals to you or that you’d quite like to do something – like in the phrase jag hade kunnat tänka mig [något] (literally “I had could think me [something]”). 

If, for example, you were discussing with your partner what you should order for dinner on a Friday night, you might say jag hade kunnat tänka mig pizza (best translated as “pizza could be nice” or “I’d quite like pizza”), which is more like a suggestion compared to jag vill äta pizza (“I want to eat pizza”).

I can imagine…

Finally, tänka can also mean “imagine”. This can be seen in the following example:

“Jag var jättetrött efter jobbet i går, jag hade jobbat 14 timmar utan paus!” “Oj! Ja, det kan jag tänka mig!”

(“I was really tired after work yesterday, I’d worked for 14 hours without a break!” “Oh wow! Yeah, I can imagine!”)

Tycka and tro

These two verbs are closer in meaning and slightly harder to explain than with the word tänka. The best way to distinguish tycka and tro is to be more specific when translating them in to English. Although “think” can be used as an umbrella term for both of these concepts, the differences start to become clearer if you use more specialised verbs when translating them instead.

An opinion, usually based on experience

Tycka has the same meaning as the English words “deem”, “regard” and “consider”, which are all used when expressing an opinion about something.

To use tycka, you would say jag tycker att (“I think that”) followed by your opinion. In spoken Swedish, the att here is often left out. Jag tycker (att) du är snäll (“I think you’re nice”) and jag tycker (att) det är kallt (I think it’s cold) are two examples.

A belief or speculation

Tro, on the other hand, can be translated as “believe”, which can be used when speculating about something or expressing a belief, such as jag tror på Gud (“I believe in God”) or jag tror det kommer regna imorgon (“I think it will rain tomorrow”).

Here’s an example to illustrate the difference between saying tycka or tro:

Jag tycker (att) det är en bra restaurang would mean “I think that’s a good restaurant”, in the sense of “I consider that to be a good restaurant”. You may have eaten at the restaurant before and you can recommend it based on the food that you ate.

Jag tror det är en bra restaurang would also mean “I think that’s a good restaurant”, but in the sense of “I believe that’s a good restaurant”. Maybe a friend has told you that they had a nice meal there, but you’ve not been there yourself so you can’t say for certain. 

Tycker om

You may also have come across the phrase tycka om, which has a slightly different meaning than tycka. Tycka always requires some sort of elaboration – it should be followed by a statement about what your opinion is – whereas tycka om simply means that you like something.

Jag tycker (att) han är snäll, jag tycker (att) choklad smakar gott

(“I think (that) he is nice”, “I think (that) chocolate tastes good”)

Jag tycker om honom, jag tycker om choklad

(“I like him”, “I like chocolate”)

You can also use the word gilla to express liking something. Jag gillar honom, jag gillar choklad (“I like him”, “I like chocolate”)

So, how do I think in Swedish?

Essentially, you should use tänka when describing actual thoughts in your head, tycka when expressing an opinion or a recommendation based on something you’ve experienced, and tro when expressing a belief or a recommendation based on something you’ve heard or read from another source.

If you’re not sure whether to use tycka or tro in a specific situation, try swapping out the word “think” with “consider” or “believe”, and see if that helps.

Are there any other aspects of Swedish grammar you find confusing or difficult which you’d like us to cover? Let us know in the comments below!

Member comments

  1. I learned Swedish by ear so it’s interesting to see if I’m using words correctly, and I am! Tack så mycket!

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LEARNING SWEDISH

How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

Swedes respond most positively to people speaking Swedish with English, Finnish and German accents, according to a new study from Sweden's Institute for Language and Folklore that took an in-depth look at a dozen foreign accents.

Published: 2 May 2024 15:29 CEST
How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

The study asked Swedes to identify the accents of 12 different people speaking Swedish, before rating the speakers on their trustworthiness, friendliness, ambition, confidence, appeal and whether they were ordentlig, a Swedish word which describes something similar to being “proper” or an upstanding citizen. 

These qualities were then ranked from one (not at all) to six (a lot), before being combined into a total score for each speaker.

Respondents were not told if they had guessed the accent of a speaker correctly or incorrectly before ranking them.

Speakers of Swedish with an English accent had the highest score on this scale: 3.86, although this is still low considering that the highest possible score was six. The English speaker spoke British English and has lived in Sweden for 41 years.

Finns came just behind on 3.85, with Germans coming third with a score of 3.79.

These three accents were also considered to be the easiest to understand, no matter how strong or weak the accents were considered to be.

In fourth place with a score of 3.62 was a female speaker with a förortsaccent, which is not an accent at all but rather a dialect of Swedish spoken in the often immigrant-heavy suburbs (förorter) of large cities. Although some aspects of förortssvenska have been influenced by languages spoken by people who have immigrated to these parts of Sweden from abroad, many speakers of förortssvenska were born in Sweden and have lived their entire lives here.

Next up were Somali, Arabic and Turkish accents, with scores of 3.32, 3.29 and 3.24 respectively. Polish, Persian and Spanish accents followed with scores of 3.23, 3.21 and 3.15, with a Bosnian accent the lowest placing foreign accent at 3.06.

The lowest result in the study overall was for a male speaker with a förortsaccent, with a score of just 2.95.

Women ranked more highly than men

Interestingly, female speakers made up four of the top five, although the most positively rated accent (English) was a male speaker. There was also only one woman in the bottom five (the Spanish speaker) suggesting that Swedes are more positive towards women with foreign accents than men.

The respondents were also asked to guess what level of education the speakers had, where they could choose between junior high school or equivalent (grundskola), senior high school or equivalent (gymnasium), post-secondary school education that was not university-level, and university-level studies.

Accents from closer countries scored more highly

As a general rule, Swedes assumed that people from countries which are closer geographically had a higher level of education than those who were from further away. English came top again, followed by German and Finnish, while a male speaker of förortssvenska came last, with the speaker with a Bosnian accent coming second to last.

In general, speakers of the accents which scored highly in terms of positive associations were also assumed to have a higher level of education, and the same can be said for the accents which had the most negative ratings.

There is a caveat, however. The positively-rated accents – English, Finnish and German – were those which speakers were best at identifying. Almost 90 percent of Swedes in the study recognised an Finnish accent, with just under 85 percent recognising an English accent and slightly under 70 percent recognising a German one.

This means that in these cases, respondents were judging these specific accents, and may have been influenced by prior contact with speakers of Swedish from these countries such as friends, coworkers or public figures, or commonly held assumptions about them.

That was also the case for the male förortsaccent, which was the fourth-most recognised accent – just over 40 percent of listeners identified it correctly.

For the other accents, listeners were unsure of their guesses, even those who guessed correctly. Only one in twenty listeners could recognise the Turkish accent, for example.

This means that assumptions made about speakers with less easily identified accents may be due to other factors than their nationality, such as the strength of their accent and their gender.

Indeed, the most common incorrect guess when a listener could not identify an accent was Arabic, often bringing with it negative ratings in the other categories.

Political views also make a difference

The study also looked at whether certain traits or beliefs in the listening Swedes affected how they ranked each speaker.

Men rated each speaker more negatively than the average score given by all listeners, while women rated them more positively.

There were also clear differences when it comes to politics, with right-wing voters more likely to have a negative opinion of foreign accents.

Listeners who identified as Sweden Democrats or Moderates rated almost all accents significantly lower than the average (Sweden Democrats rated English and Finnish roughly the same as average listeners, and Moderates rated German accents roughly the same as the average).

Christian Democrats and Liberals rated the accents similar to the average result for all listeners, while left-bloc voters belonging to the Centre Party, Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party rated almost all accents significantly higher than the average. 

The groups with the most positive attitude towards people speaking Swedish with an accent were women, the highly educated, voters in the left-wing bloc and, to a lesser extent, older people and people who earn less than 25,000 kronor a month.

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