mycket

Mycket is a Swedish word meaning “a lot” or “much,” and also functioning as an intensifier meaning “very.” It is primarily used as an adverb of degree and as a quantifier for uncountable nouns. As an adverb, it can modify verbs (Jag arbetar mycket), adjectives (Det är mycket bra), or other adverbs (Hon kör mycket långsamt). As a quantifier for mass nouns, it appears with nouns like vatten or tid (mycket vatten, mycket tid). When referring to countable nouns, Swedish typically uses många (many) instead of mycket, though mycket can appear in expressions like mycket av något (a lot of some of it).

In grammar, mycket can also function in a predicative position to indicate extent within a clause, as in Det finns mycket att göra (“There is a lot to do”). The phrase mycket av is common for expressing a large portion, as in mycket av boken (“much of the book”). The degree meaning can be strengthened with other modifiers, such as mycket bättre (“much better”) or mycket lite (“very little”). The form is typically neutral and formal enough for written Swedish, but more colloquial synonyms or approximations (så mycket, jätte-, jättemycket) are common in speech.

Etymology and related forms: mycket stems from Proto-North Germanic roots shared with related Scandinavian languages. cognates include Danish meget, Norwegian mye/meget, and Icelandic miklu or mikið, reflecting a common ancient Germanic origin. In Swedish usage, mycket remains a versatile and frequent term for conveying quantity or emphasis and contrasts with words like lite, lite grand, or så mycket depending on context.