In most European languages, choice of address form classifies the relation between speakers. The first theoretical framework for analyzing address form usage was established by Brown and Gilman (1960) in their investigation of the semantics of pronoun use in a wide variety of Indo-European languages, which concluded that Europeans use the informal pronoun with increasing frequency. This appears to be true of Swedish, in which greater avoidance of second person personal pronouns is practiced than in other European languages. The problem of choosing an appropriate term in Swedish has been complicated by a feeling that the grammatically correct use of the second person plural to a single individual was impolite. One was expected to use other forms. Recently, however, this practice has changed towards a more general use of the informal pronoun, due partly to a number of political and social pressures. This paper discusses both aspects of Swedish address form usage: the diachronic, with emphasis on social and political factors which have produced considerable change in the system during this century, and the synchronic, focusing on age and formality as possible factors in form choice. (Author/CLK)