nästan

Nästan is a Swedish adverb meaning almost or nearly. It is used to indicate that something is close to a state, quantity, or event but not quite reached. The word typically precedes the element it modifies, most often adjectives, numerals, or time expressions.

Common usage examples include: "Det är nästan färdigt" (it is almost finished), "nästan varje dag" (almost every day), and "vi har nästan tio kilo kvar" (we have almost ten kilograms left). It can describe broad ranges as in "nästan hela veckan" (almost the whole week) or concrete totals as in "nästan allt" (almost everything) and "nästan inget" (almost nothing).

Nästan is widely used in both spoken and written Swedish across formal and informal registers. It is often contrasted with phrases like "så gott som" (as good as) to convey near-completion or near-identity, and with "knappt" (barely) when the sense is closer to the threshold of being insufficient or uncertain.

Related considerations include avoiding confusion with similar-sounding words such as "nästa" (next). In compound expressions, nästan can interact with determiners and quantifiers to emphasize proximity, and it commonly appears before adjectives or numerals to set the degree of closeness.

See also: så gott som, knappt, nästan aldrig. English equivalents include almost and nearly.