Swedish Translation Services

Where Swedish is spoken and where your translation is accepted

Swedish is the main language of Sweden, one of the two national languages of Finland, together with Finnish, and the only official language of the Åland Islands. It has been an official language of the European Union since 1995, and it has more than 10 million speakers. Between the middle of the 19th century and the early 20th century, more than a million Swedes emigrated to the United States, many of them to Minnesota and Illinois, and their descendants still look for Swedish family records. The destination decides the type of translation.

Swedish translation services for Sweden and Finland

Swedish is close to Norwegian and Danish, and speakers of the three often understand each other, but documents from Sweden and from Finland follow their own formats and their own official terms. A good translation follows the Swedish of the original, keeps every letter of the names and reads naturally to whoever receives it.

• Letters: Swedish uses the Latin alphabet with three more letters, å, ä and ö, which come after z. American documents often drop the marks, so Åström becomes Astrom and Björk becomes Bjork. The translation keeps every name exactly as in the original, so tell us the form used in your US documents when you order.
• Sweden and Finland: the Swedish of Finland (finlandssvenska) has some words of its own, so a health center is a hälsocentral in Finland and a vårdcentral in Sweden, and the upper secondary school exam is the studentexamen in Finland and the gymnasieexamen in Sweden. Many documents from Finland come in Finnish and Swedish side by side; if yours is only in Finnish, tell us when you order and we confirm the options before quoting.
• Names: many surnames end in -son, such as Andersson and Johansson, a trace of the old patronymics, which became fixed family names after a law of 1901. In the United States many families shortened them to Anderson or Johnson. The translation never adapts a name: it keeps the spelling of the original, and differences between your documents are something to point out when you order.
• Dates and numbers: official documents often write dates in year, month and day order, so 2026-10-03 is October 3, 2026, and the months are lowercase, as in 3 oktober 2026. Decimals use a comma and thousands a space, so 1 500,00 is one thousand five hundred. In both countries the personal identity number begins with the date of birth.
• Documents from Sweden and Finland: the extract from the population register (personbevis), issued by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), the marriage certificate (vigselbevis), the degree certificate (examensbevis) and, from Finland, the extract from the population register (ämbetsbetyg in Swedish, virkatodistus in Finnish). The translation reproduces every stamp, seal and note.