How the articles are made

Every article on The Swedish starts as real news and ends up as a simple text for learners to decipher. Language learning often lacks immersion, and that is something The Swedish is built to help with.

AI does much of the heavy lifting, and every article is edited and approved by a human before it is published.

The AI newsroom finds and researches the news

The digital newsroom scans preselected, trusted sources for news that is repeated by multiple outlets. This makes it possible to find the stories people are probably talking about in the learner's everyday life.

Why AI? It lets a small team publish news at both quality and pace. It is built to be strict when cross-checking statements between sources, so that articles stick to what the sources confirm and leave out speculation. The point is not to compete with real journalism. The point is to get learners talking in Swedish about what affects them in their everyday lives.

The story is written in simple Swedish

Each story is written in short, clear sentences, so that the text is decipherable for a learner without becoming overwhelming. Words that are relevant to the topic are kept, even if they might not be considered basic enough for beginners. Terms that are common in the news, or that matter for the subject, stay in the text, because meeting them in context is part of learning Swedish. They are picked up in the vocabulary list, where they are recorded and translated.

Learning help that sets us apart

There are several real news sites out there in simple Swedish. Their focus is, however, accessibility. The Swedish is made for learning Swedish, so every article comes with translations and a vocabulary list of key words. For each word the learner can see its different forms, hear how it is pronounced and save it to practise later with the Say it in Swedish learning system. The pronunciation is recorded by a native speaker. The words are chosen because they are common in the news or in the subject of the story, so the learner builds the vocabulary needed to read real Swedish.

At the end of each article the learner can test their understanding with a quiz of 3–4 questions about the story. It is a great way to get feedback on reading practice.

The Swedish Weekly

The weekly podcast collects a few of the week's stories so that the learner can also practise their hearing. The articles are read by a native Swedish speaker – Joakim from Say it in Swedish. This is where AI gets to sit on the bench.

A word on accuracy

The Swedish is a learning tool and not a replacement for the original news. Simplifying a text always means leaving out details. For the full story, the learner can use the links to the original sources. If a learner spots a mistake, please contact us.