CEFR B1 in Swedish: what you can do

B1 is where Swedish starts to feel like a language you can talk in. You cope with most situations, tell stories and give reasons for your opinions. The big grammar step is the difference between main and subordinate clauses: the word order changes, and that is the first thing that makes your Swedish sound natural.

What you can do

Tell the story of a trip or a film and explain what you think about it.
Follow clear, standard speech about work, school and free time.
Write connected texts about familiar topics, such as an email to a landlord or a short review.
Give reasons and explanations with eftersom, därför att, men, så att.
Take part in a conversation without preparation, even if you sometimes hunt for words.

A quick self-check

You are probably at B1 if you can do most of these:

Say Jag vet att han inte kommer with the correct word order without thinking.
Describe a person with som: Hon är läraren som bor i huset bredvid.
Understand the gist of a short news report on Swedish radio.
Compare two things: Det här är billigare än det där.

Typical grammar at B1

The passive with -s

The simplest passive adds -s to the verb: Boken läses av många. Brevet skickades igår. Det talas svenska här. Use it in instructions, news and formal writing: Dörren stängs klockan sex.

Reflexive verbs

Some verbs take mig, dig, sig, oss, er: Jag skyndar mig. Han rakar sig. Vi känner oss trötta. Note that sig is only for third person, and that Swedish also uses -s for reciprocal verbs: Vi ses imorgon. De träffas ofta.

Subordinate clause word order

In a subordinate clause the adverb comes before the verb, which is the opposite of a main clause.

Main clause	Subordinate clause
Jag vet inte.	Hon säger att jag inte vet.
Han kommer inte.	Jag tror att han inte kommer.
Vi har aldrig varit där.	Eftersom vi aldrig har varit där...

If the subordinate clause comes first, the main clause then starts with its verb: Om det regnar, stannar vi hemma. See verb-second word order.

Relative clauses with som

Som links a clause to a noun, and it can be the subject: Mannen som bor här är min granne. As an object it can be left out: Boken (som) jag läste var bra.

Comparison

Short adjectives take -are and -ast: stor, större, störst; gammal, äldre, äldst; bra, bättre, bäst. Long adjectives use mer and mest: intressant, mer intressant, mest intressant. Than is än: Stockholm är större än Uppsala.

Vocabulary themes

Work, studies and the workplace
Media, news and technology
Environment and society
Travel problems and complaints
Feelings, opinions and relationships

What you may find hard

Word order in subordinate clauses. The pattern att + subject + inte + verb needs plenty of repetition.
Reflexive or not. Swedish and English often differ, for example Jag minns (no mig) against Jag skyndar mig.
The irregular comparison forms. Learn bra, bättre, bäst and liten, mindre, minst as chunks.

The Swedex exam

Swedex B1 is the middle level of the Swedish universities' exam of Swedish as a foreign language. It is a useful goal if you want something concrete to aim for. SFI, the course for immigrants, ends at about this level.

How to practise at this level

Read short news items and summarise them aloud. Try everyday idioms for natural sentences. When ready, move on to B2.

Practice

In a subordinate clause the inte comes before the verb. The passive of skicka in the past is skickades. The comparison of bra is irregular: bättre, bäst.