The aim of this paper is to present some results of a pilot study designed to find out the extent to which English words and expressions are already familiar to Swedish-speaking children before they start studying English at school, that is, at the end of their fourth school year. The study drew data from a simple productive and receptive English skills test administered to 74 pupils at that level in four Swedish-language schools in Finland. A relatively good knowledge of English vocabulary was found, especially in instances of similarity between English and Swedish forms. On the receptive (listening comprehension) portion of the test, the average of correctly identified words was 52 percent, and for expressions it was 58 percent, with recognition being best for words referring to family, pets, parts of the body, and colors. On the productive test, in which students were asked to write as many English words as possible and their Swedish equivalents in 20 minutes, the pupils produced 246 different words, with 25 percent of those occurring in more than two pupils' lists and referring to aspects of everyday life, such as numerals, colors, animals, and days of the week. It is recommended that teachers of English to Swedish-speakers take advantage of the linguistic similarities to facilitate comprehension. (MSE)