Numbers

Number words are mostly fixed: två bilar today is still två bilar tomorrow. Only three corners of the system change form — the word for one, the ordinals, and the large numbers that behave like nouns. This chapter packs all of them into three small tables.

Which number words change?

You already met this choice in En, Ett, and the Definite Form: the word for one is the same en/ett pair the noun itself demands. There is no separate counting rule to learn — match the noun's gender:

Most basic cardinal number words do not change:

Store spelling variants instead of deriving them:

Same color marks the same reusable ending — it helps you spot the pattern, though some words need to be learned whole.

The first twelve ordinals are dictionary words — store the cardinal and its ordinal together. Even here the endings rhyme in small families:

From thirteen on the system is regular. Every teen cardinal ends in -ton, and the ordinal just adds -de:

The tens end in -tio (except tjugo), and their ordinals add -nde. hundra and tusen simply add -de:

In compound ordinals, the last number carries the ordinal form:

Some ordinal forms have optional masculine forms, used only when the noun refers to a male person:

Use these like the adjective masculine -e forms. They only work with a male referent: förste mannen, but never förste kvinnan — that stays första kvinnan. Useful to recognize, not the default beginner form.

Some large number words behave like nouns:

Treat these as noun paradigms, not as ordinary fixed cardinal numerals.