From: Urban Lindqvist

In case someone wonders about the quantities, I should point out that there are two syllable-structures in Swedish: long vowel + short consonant, or short vowel + long consonant. Cf. vit 'white' [viːt̪] vs. vitt 'white (neuter)' [vɪt̪ː]. Exceptions are again provided by compounds: vedtrave 'woodpile' [˜veːt̪ːr̪ɑːvɛ] ([veːd̪] + [˜t̪r̪ɑːvɛ]).

My formulation is misleading: the rule that either the vowel or the consonant is long only applies to vowels and the immediately following consonants in stressed syllables; otherwise both consonants and vowels are short.

Urban