detta

Detta is a Swedish demonstrative determiner and pronoun used to indicate a thing that has already been mentioned or is about to be described. It is most commonly attached to neuter nouns (ett-words), as in Detta hus är stort. It can also function as a stand-alone pronoun, as in Detta är viktigt. In everyday speech the form is often replaced by more colloquial variants such as det här or det här, especially when emphasis or immediacy is intended.

Grammar and usage notes vary by register. For common-gender nouns (en-words) the corresponding demonstratives are denna (or den här in speech) rather than detta. In contemporary Swedish, detta tends to carry a formal, literary, or administrative tone and appears frequently in written genres such as legal texts, manuals, and academic prose. In ordinary conversation, speakers favor more direct expressions like det här or den här.

Etymology and cross-language context place detta within the North Germanic family of demonstratives. It is historically related to the Danish and Norwegian dette, and to Icelandic þetta, reflecting shared roots for the demonstrative “this/that.” While translations vary by language, detta and its cognates serve a similar function across the Scandinavian languages, marking reference to a specified entity with neuter or general emphasis in formal contexts.