Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar is an award-winning complete reference guide to modern Swedish grammar. This volume is organised to promote a thorough understanding of Swedish grammar, presenting the complexities of the language in a concise and readable form. Explanations are full, clear and free of jargon, and an extensive index, numbered paragraphs, cross-references and summary charts provide readers with easy access to the information they require.

This fourth edition has been exhaustively researched and updated to align with current standards in the description of language and to incorporate the most recent recommendations of Sprakradet, the Language Council of Sweden. The emphasis is on Swedish in everyday communication, drawing on contemporary corpus material and a wide range of printed and online sources to illustrate the use of high-frequency words and expressions. Examples have been systematically updated to reflect contemporary conventions and usage, and new content has been added to reflect the increasing democratisation of written Swedish.

Key features include:

* detailed treatment of grammatical structures and parts of speech
* a wealth of authentic examples, many drawn from mainstream news media and reliable online sources
* careful attention to areas that typically cause confusion or difficulty for learners
* Swedish/English contrasts highlighted throughout the book
* a new chapter outlining major differences in written and spoken Swedish, with notes on slang and youth argot.

Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar is the most thorough and detailed Swedish grammar available in English and is an essential reference source for students and speakers of Swedish, irrespective of level.

About the Author

Ian Hinchliffe, Ph.D, is a former lecturer in Swedish, a freelance translator and founder member of the Swedish Association of Professional Translators.

Philip Holmes, Ph.D, (1944-2019) was Reader Emeritus in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Hull, UK.

Sofia Malmgard, B.A., is an experienced translator, language consultant and author of Sveriges sprakflora, a handbook for a multilingual society.

Reviews

Winner of the Swedish National Language Council's Erik Wellander Prize, 2003

Praise for the first edition

'This grammar has great assets. The first is that it is compiled by English-speaking people who have an excellent command of Swedish but who know at first hand where the difficulties of learning Swedish lie ... The second is that it represents contemporary Swedish and draws attention to different styles and registers ... a good reliable guide to modern Swedish and should serve as a standard reference of many years.'

- Scandinavica

'The strong points of this grammar are: (a) it concentrates on everyday informal language; (b) it gives a wealth of examples; (c) by being "unashamedly comparative" it highlights some aspects of the Swedish language that are hardly ever touched upon in Swedish grammars written by native speakers.'

- Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek

Praise for the second edition

'A vital contribution to the presentation of Swedish to an international audience. The book adopts a valuable external perspective on Swedish, from which native speakers of Swedish can also benefit, and is a major source of knowledge for all of those either within or outside Sweden who teach Swedish as a second language or as a foreign language.'

-The Swedish Language Council

'We have in Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar an extraordinarily workable teaching and reference tool that should continue to be a source of linguistic enrichment for many years to come.'

- Marilyn Johns Blackwell, Ohio State University, USA

'(T)his is a reference work of the first rank ... Above all, however, this book constitutes the most important international work of reference for everyone with an interest in linguistics in search of detailed information about the morphology and syntax of Swedish.'

- Skandinavistik

Praise for the third edition

'A thorough, clear guide to the rules of Swedish grammar... Holmes and Hinchliffe cover everything from basics such as nouns and adjectives to more advanced topics such as interjections and prepositions, and they do it all with ease and clarity. Javisst, this is the best reference book to Swedish grammar you'll find in English.'

- B.J. Epstein, University of East Anglia, UK

Book Information
ISBN 9781032989273
Author Ian Hinchliffe
Format Paperback
Page Count 622
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd