Gender neutral language in Swedish: Difference between revisions

In older Swedish, titles/phrases based on one's gender have been used to mention/adress someone with politeness/formality i.e. fru, fröken, dam, herr, mister etc. This has also been used in front of profession titles, e.g. fru/herr Minister. This is rather an obsolete practice and is only used in a few select cases. In modern Swedish, to mention or adress someone more formally, one should instead use both first name and last name or only last name without any title.

An innovative option could be to use only the first name's initial and then the last name.

Another innovative option would be to use formal plural forms with a capital letter, e.g. ”Tack Ni minister!” (Thank You minister!), ”Hej! Ni Andersson.” (Hi! You Andersson.), ”Låt De minister tala till punkt.” (Let They minister speak.), ”De Andersson har godkänt begäran.” (They Andersson have accepted the request.), "Jag vill tacka Er för Er hjälp med projektet." (I want to thank You for Your help with the project). In addition, you can use words such as "sällskapet" (the company) if you want to be formal regarding a person's companion.