"Himlen kan vänta."

Translation: Heaven can wait.

[Arnauti]

Hear a native speaker prounounce himlen here.

[StevenV13]

Interesting, but also confusing. On that page a hear two very different pronounciations, both from native speakers.
Is there in Swedish an equivalent to 'BBC English', I mean some kind of standard? Or are you very tollerant towards dialects?

[Arnauti]

Well spotted! I posted that link in 2014, I think the contents of the page have since changed … the speaker Algimantas is clearly not a native speaker of Swedish. Forvo is starting to go bad from some very active non-native speakers who record a lot of sentences. The speaker arhus12 sounds perfect though.

[zuvedra_mandra]

Algimantas is definitely Lithuanian name. Seems like some fellow from my country would like to be a Swede soo much :)

[Snommelp]

Is there anything (other than context) to clue a person in as to when "the sky" should be preferred vs. when "Heaven" should be used?

[AnnieAndersson]

No. They are both spelled and pronounced the same.

[pipthevaliant]

Someone here has a neat taste in movies :)

[Metlieb]

I find it confusing how it's Himlen, but translating is as the heaven is wrong...

[larsbangsimonsen]

Yes. It is confusing... also then we Scandinavians have to learn English.
But languages have different ways to use the definite articel.

In English, it is normal that general ideas as Science, Nature and Heaven have no articel or 'the'. But in Swedish (and Danish), we often prefer to write Vetenskapen (videnskaben), Naturen and Himlen with the definite article.

[Q_C]

So would there be an instance where the indefinite or no article is used for heaven in Swedish?

[devalanteriel]

Sure, if you're not talking about the specific entity called Heaven.

[kounsh]

what is the difference between "himmel" and "himlen"?

[Arnauti]

himmel is the indefinite form and himlen is the definite.
The plural forms are himlar and himlarna.

[kounsh]

Oh i see! Thank you so much :)

[ManuelaReaes]

Himlen över city