Swedish/Pronouns

Possessive pronouns (Possessiva pronomen)
Notes: (1) strikethrough letters are often silent in everyday speech. (2) Words in parenthesis are the spoken form. When they appear in text, they are colloquial on the same level as "gonna" or "wanna" in English.

"Second person plural" means "second person plural." In Swedish there has been a marked difference between usage in Finland-Swedish compared to in Sweden. While the form Ni (noted as formal above) has remained the common respectful address in Finland-Swedish, it was until the 1960s considered somewhat careless, bullying or rude in Sweden, where addressing in 3rd person with repetition of name and title was considered proper and respectful. After that the usage swiftly changed in Sweden, and the 2nd person du (noted as informal above) came to dominate totally, until recently when in the late 1990s a usage resembling that in German, Finnish or Finland-Swedish has become popular among the youngest adults as a kind of false archaism. It is also now common to see Du capitalized in places where the formal Ni would have been used before, such as in printed instructions or on signs.