What language is spoken in Stockholm?

Sweden has sat in or near the top five of the EF English Proficiency Index for most of the past decade, and Stockholm tends to run above the national average. In Gamla stan, Djurgården and Östermalm, shopkeepers on Västerlånggatan, ferry crews at Slussen and the ticket desk at the Vasa Museum handle English without a pause. Swedes under 50 grew up on subtitled American TV, never dubbed, which is why the accent often sounds faintly Californian. You'll find gaps with some over-70s in Vasastan, on Swedish-only paperwork and on the queue-ticket machines at Apoteket pharmacies. Opening with 'Pratar du engelska?' is polite but rarely needed in Stockholm. Most people reply in English before you finish the question.

Swedish trips first-timers up on signs and in tunnelbana announcements, not in conversation. Utgång is exit and Ingång is entrance. Drag and Tryck on doors mean pull and push, and nearly every English speaker walks into a glass door at T-Centralen at least once on day 1. Place names are the bigger problem: Djurgården sounds like 'YOOR-gor-den', Kungsträdgården like 'KOONGS-trair-gor-den', and Hötorget comes out roughly 'HUR-tor-yet'. Once you can hear those, the recorded voice on the green line stops sounding like static over the screech of brakes. On the blue line, T-Centralen's cave walls are painted with blue vines, and the same clipped station names echo off the rock.

Menus at Östermalms Saluhall and most lunch places are in Swedish first. Dagens lunch is the weekday set meal, usually 125 to 155 SEK with bread, salad and coffee included, which at 9.90 kronor to the dollar works out to about $13 to $16, making it the cheapest proper sit-down meal in the city. Köttbullar med lingonsylt is meatballs with tart lingonberry jam. Sill is pickled herring, sweet and sharp with vinegar. A räksmörgås is an open prawn sandwich piled so high the egg slices slide off. Laktosfri (lactose-free) and glutenfri are printed on most Stockholm menus. A sign reading 'Vi tar inte kontanter' means the place takes cards only, which is true of most cafés in Södermalm.

Tack is the word you'll use most. Stockholmers say it when collecting change, leaving a shop, or stepping off an SL bus. Hej works for hello at any level of formality, and 'hej hej' means goodbye as often as hello. Leave the formal 'ni' alone: Sweden dropped it in the late-1960s du-reformen, and using it with a waiter in Vasastan now sounds stiff and dated. Fika is the mid-afternoon coffee break, and a café on Hornsgatan at 15:00 smells of cardamom and burnt sugar from the kanelbullar. Pant on a bottle or can means a deposit of a few kronor, which you get back at the machine by the door of any ICA or Coop.