Zodiac Signs in Swedish: All 12 Names, and Why Taurus Is an Ox

The zodiac signs in Swedish are almost unrecognisable if you only know the English names. Swedish never borrowed the Latin the way English did — it translated the whole zodiac into plain Swedish, so every sign except Skorpionen is an ordinary word for a ram, an ox, a crayfish or a set of scales. The Swedish word for the whole system is stjärntecken, literally “star sign”, and it is what Swedes say in everyday conversation.

This guide covers all twelve Swedish zodiac signs with pronunciation, literal meanings, date ranges, and the one grammar rule that catches every learner who tries to say their own sign out loud.

All 12 Zodiac Signs in Swedish

Here are the Swedish zodiac sign names in astrological order, with the English equivalent, an approximate pronunciation, what each name literally means, and the dates as a Swedish source would write them.

Pronunciations are approximations for English readers. Swedish carries two tonal accents that no respelling can reproduce, so treat these as a starting point rather than a recording.

Swedish Zodiac Signs Have Two Forms — Here Is the Rule

Every Swedish star sign in that table ends in -en, -et or -na, and none of those endings belongs to the word. Swedish attaches its definite article to the end of a noun instead of putting a separate word in front of it. Vädur means “ram”; Väduren means “the ram”.

The constellation always takes the definite form. A person does not:

• The sign: Väduren är ett eldtecken. — Aries is a fire sign.
• The person: Jag är vädur. — I’m an Aries.

Reverse them and you say something closer to “I am the ram” than “I’m an Aries”. Learn the Swedish zodiac sign names as pairs and the problem disappears:

How to Say Each of the Zodiac Signs in Swedish

Twelve short entries, one per sign: the Swedish word, where it comes from, and what it tells you that the English name does not.

Aries in Swedish: Väduren

The Swedish word for Aries is Väduren, from vädur, “ram”. It descends from Old Norse veðr and is the same ancient word as English “wether”, an old farming term for a ram. Swedish kept the animal where English kept the Latin. For the sign itself rather than the vocabulary, see the full Aries profile.

Taurus in Swedish: Oxen

This is the most interesting of all the Swedish star signs. Swedish has a perfectly serviceable word for bull — tjur — and did not use it. Taurus in Swedish is Oxen: the working ox, castrated, patient, pulling a plough. Danish and Norwegian both chose Tyren, the bull. Swedish Taurus is therefore a calmer animal than its neighbours’, which arguably suits the sign’s reputation better. Compare the Taurus profile.

Gemini in Swedish: Tvillingarna

Tvilling is built on två, “two”, exactly as English “twin” is built on “two”. Gemini is plural in Swedish, which is why it takes -arna rather than -en. More in the Gemini profile.

Cancer in Swedish: Kräftan

Not a crab. Kräfta is specifically a crayfish — the freshwater creature Swedes eat by the kilo at August kräftskivor, crayfish parties, complete with schnapps and paper hats. Swedish for crab is krabba, and it is never used for this sign. The word also carried the older medical sense of cancer the disease, from the same ancient image of a tumour with claws. See the Cancer profile.

Leo in Swedish: Lejonet

Lejon is a neuter noun, which is why the ending here is -et and not -en — the only sign in the list that does this. It reached Swedish through Low German from Latin leo, making it one of the few Swedish zodiac signs with Latin anywhere in its family tree. The Leo profile has the rest.

Virgo in Swedish: Jungfrun

Jungfru is literally “young woman”, and in older Swedish it meant a maid or an unmarried gentlewoman. It survives in place names — Blå Jungfrun, the Blue Maiden, is an island in the Baltic. Swedish chose the maiden over the virgin, a noticeably softer reading than the Latin. Read the Virgo profile.

Libra in Swedish: Vågen

Våg means a set of scales. It also means a wave, as in the sea — same spelling, same pronunciation, two unrelated senses. Swedes hear both, and the pun turns up constantly in horoskop headlines. The Libra profile covers the sign.

Scorpio in Swedish: Skorpionen

The one clear loanword among the astrological signs in Swedish. Sweden has no native scorpions, so there was no Swedish word to translate into and the Latin came in whole. Pronounce the sk hard, “skor-“, because it sits in front of a back vowel — then compare Skytten below, where the identical letters behave completely differently. See the Scorpio profile.

Sagittarius in Swedish: Skytten

Skytt means a shooter or marksman, from skjuta, “to shoot” — the same root behind prickskytt, “sniper”. The bow has been dropped entirely; Swedish Sagittarius is simply the one who shoots. Note the sound: sk before y becomes a breathy back-of-the-mouth consonant English does not have, much closer to “sh” than to “sk”. The Sagittarius profile has more.

Capricorn in Swedish: Stenbocken

Sten (stone) plus bock (buck): the ibex, the wild goat that lives on bare rock. There is no fish tail in the Swedish name, so the sea-goat of Babylonian myth vanishes and you are left with a mountain animal — arguably the better image for the sign anyway. See the Capricorn profile.

Aquarius in Swedish: Vattumannen

A small fossil hides in this word. Modern Swedish for water is vatten, so you would expect Vattenmannen. The form vattu- is an old genitive that has disappeared from every other word in the language and survives here alone: “the man of water”. Write Vattenmannen and you will be understood, but it is not the name of the sign. Read the Aquarius profile.

Pisces in Swedish: Fiskarna

Plural, like the Latin: the fishes. Watch a near-miss here — fiskarna is “the fishes”, but fiskarna can also be heard as “the fishermen” (fiskare), and learners confuse the two constantly. Context does the work. The Pisces profile covers the sign.

Swedish Star Sign Vocabulary and Phrases

The twelve names are only half of it. This is the vocabulary that surrounds them:

And the sentences you will actually need:

• Vad är ditt stjärntecken? — What’s your star sign?
• Jag är skorpion. — I’m a Scorpio.
• Mitt stjärntecken är Vågen. — My star sign is Libra.
• Jag är född i Stenbocken. — I was born under Capricorn. (Literally “born in”.)
• Vilket tecken är du? — Which sign are you?
• Typiskt lejon! — Typical Leo!

Astrology and Stjärntecken in Sweden

Swedish tabloids — Aftonbladet and Expressen in particular — have run daily horoskop columns for decades, and every Swedish women’s weekly carries one. The register is light. Astrology in Sweden works more as a shared social vocabulary than a belief system, and “typiskt vädur” is the sort of thing said with a raised eyebrow.

That tone matters if you are translating horoscope copy into Swedish: a solemn English original reads as faintly absurd in Swedish unless you loosen it considerably. Swedish horoscope signs are discussed the way star signs are discussed in Britain rather than the way they are discussed in Brazil or India.

Frequently Asked Questions

Zodiac Signs in Swedish and Its Neighbouring Languages

Swedish sits inside a tight family, and the comparisons are where the vocabulary finally sticks. Its two closest relatives use the same twelve images with different words — see the zodiac signs in Danish, where Aquarius doubles as the word for jellyfish, and the zodiac signs in Norwegian, which has two correct spellings for half the list. Then there is Finnish, which shares a border with Sweden and almost nothing else linguistically.

All twenty languages side by side: zodiac signs in different languages.