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Nice, but it's not just pitch, like in the banana example. For us Swedes it's the length of the vowels.

If the second vowel "a" is pronounced longer than the first - more like "banaan" the meaning of the word is banana.

If you pronounce it with the first vowel longer - more like "baanan" the meaning of the word is the track/the railroad/the path/the course/the lane/the orbit/the career (yes, we have very few words and often use one word for many meanings)

I stopped here because I'm trying to learn Norwegian, found it very helpful, thanks.

Hej! I am the teacher in the first example! (0:57) First of all, thank you for a great video with many good tips 😊 Secondly, I AM a native Swedish speaker (it is my first language, born and raised). What is of course not mentioned here (but that I do mention under/in my videos) that there are many different dialects when it comes to Swedish (just take skånska or norrländska, they sound completely different😅) I try to keep my pronunciation as neutral as possible but of course sometimes I do get a small dialect as well, that's only natural and not something I am trying to hide)! I do post a lot of videos in different categories, quizzes, polls and also longer lessons so if you are interested please have a look 🇸🇪💛  Also, a reminder to all Swedish natives out there, just because someone doesn't speak your exact dialect (or have an accent if they are learning Swedish as a second or third language) does NOT mean that it is wrong or "bad" in any way, and yes "stockholmska" is also a dialect 😉

It's especially helpful when you speak German as well as English.

This video is so validating that the process works. I started learning Swedish to hack other languages back during covid and have devoutly watched Ollys videos ever since, and could understand everything without English subtitles. I did immersion and shadowing early on so by year 6 when I would go to Scandinavian events, native speakers actually comment on accent and use of words and not having that usual American lag moment of searching for words. Swedish is so fun to learn, and will make you a polyglot quicker than you think. I’m up to learning 9+ languages on a regular basis and just added Albanian this year 😅 it’s an addiction at this point

I love how In his video, people would usually scroll away or not keep watching, but what keeps some people isn't just the decor and background and the video, its the specific stuff, in the chair in the background there's usually something on it that is not so hard but a bit to see, for example in some videos he put the MacBook box, and it kept me and probably others watching, and these small details make people hooked, and actually have trust in the video, but for something more appealing like a MacBook that looks expensive, its a great hook, people like to see that, its always the smack stuff

As for pitch accent, dialects in Sweden have more or less pitch, as someone else here said it’s more about the length of the vowels and also where you put the emphasis in the words.

In the south there’s hardly any pitch compared to for example in Stockholm that generally has a lot of pitch and  Finnish-Swedish hasn’t got pitch at all.

An interesting thing is that women seem to have a lot more pitch than men do generally.

And as for the “inhale sound”, that isn’t a national thing at all, it’s used in some regions and in some not at all.

Jag älskar svenska och jag lär mig nu

Thank you for the videos! When it came up on my feed I thought for a second that Robbie Fowler was teaching languages now 😅

here to do my civic duty and point out that banana/track (banan/banan) is not an example of pitch accent, but about stress. "tomten står på tomten" or "jag hörde stegen på stegen" on the other hand are classic examples of pitch accent word play

Pretty sure the woman studying in Norway was Danish and spoke a blend of all 3 languages.

haiii, please make a lot of content about languages, i love your videos!!!

I'm interested in this video. Thank you, Olly.

Am I a native Swedish speaker? Yes.
Did I watch the entire video? Also yes lol 😅

One thing that I find a bit strange about the pitch accent is that basically not a single one of the videos I've seen talking about it (and I've seen many) mentions one of the main mechanisms behind why it happens that we get two different words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Maybe it's of no interest at all to most people, or perhaps it's just completely inconsequential to learning Swedish?

Anyways, for those interested, it's quite tightly connected to the definite article, which in Swedish is added as a suffix to the word. Very commonly, the suffix is either -n (for words ending in a vowel) or -en (for words not ending in a vowel). This leads to words like "and" (duck) and "ande" (spirit) both becoming "anden" (the duck/the spirit) when adding the definite article. Same with "tomt" (plot) and "tomte" (gnome, santa), they both become "tomten" (the plot/the gnome). This is also why they are pronounced with different pitch, one of the words may be a one-syllable word (e.g. and) while the other is a two-syllable word (ande). The two-syllable word pitches up on the second syllable, and this is kept when adding the -n suffix. When adding a -en suffix, though, the definite article pitches down instead. For words like "banan" (banana) and "bana" (track, lane), we instead have different stresses. For banan, the second syllable is stressed, and for bana, the first syllable is. Add definite article -n to bana, and the stress on the first syllable remains.

As for the “sj” sound and the royal family, not exactly but close. The King usually pronounce that way, he speaks an older posh upper class type of Stockholm-like dialect. The others might have traces of it but I can’t really hear it in his daughter, the Crown Princess. She used to speak more Stockholm dialect when she was younger but she seems to have worked on learning to speak a more neutral accent since then.

Two language to have as base for Swedish expect from Scandinavian language. Is to know the history of the Swedish and Scandinavia language!

Swedish as Norwegian have influence English. Example  ägg = egg
And a harder får Norwegian Vindöga = Window.

Then understand that Sweden have got match Franchise words as when the Bornapart family got on the throne.
(Famous story is that when Jean Bernadotte
Wife Queen Desideria came to Gothenburg. The present was at the street and got learn to shout "vi vill ha regn" (we wan't rain) that sounds at "Vivala Range (God save the Regent).

So Frensh got more posh and many French word got in to the Swedish language.

Like Schema (Scema), Ganger (Genere) and  Toalette ( Loo).

Later under the late 1900 century the seance took over and the former German language got more important! Then you got more German words and pronasiation in the Swedish language!

Kaput (broken), and  fönster (window) "note the difference from Norwegian! Also Schlager as Hit music and Ångest Germen Angst "Anxiety".

Lately more and more word is more English word influenced by English!

Like. Deleta (delete  erese), populär ( popular), Diskotek (discotek) and Skäpp (ship).

But be warrhr! Even in Scandinavian language can a word that sounds the same have a totally different significance!

Example: rolig = in Norwigian "calm" in Swedish "funny" or wears the word "pula" Swedish to "do some thing" in Norwigian to mastrubate!

Listen to swedish pop music :) And YOUNG ROYALS hehe

Just a tip from a swede. If you kom across a swedish "sh" sound like the example sjuksköterska which I know is hard. Use the sound in the beginning of 'shit'  oh no one of these again. In many cases I would say you are spot on in words with the 'sh' sound spellt in swedish with k or kj like the words 'källa' and 'kjol'. Next trick is getting sj, sk and skj right. Use the sound 'sh' in 'shit' and make your lips a bit more pointy if you want to sound posh or a bit more throaty if you want to sound 'bonnig'  'farmerlike'. Nearly the sound infamous in dutch like in Gouda. In my dialect 'östgötska' 'eastern geates' it is pretty close and even in this name you have yet another spelling of 'sh' with g as in dutch. In my dialect it is close to the sound in the beginning of Grooningen.