Abstract This study deals with the grammar sections in one older and one newer textbook series for Swedish in grades 7–9. The questions for the study are: firstly, the scope of the teaching materials, the content and the number of exercises, and secondly if the content presentation can be classified as deductive or inductive, and if the design of exercises is mainly product or process-oriented. Furthermore the relationship between the goals of the national curriculum and progression in grades 7–9 is investigated. The method chosen for this study is a text analysis. The results show that both textbook series contain similar content for word classes, that the material presentation is predominantly deductive and that most exercises are product-oriented. Differences that can be seen are that the older teaching series contain more pages devoted to word classes and parts of speech and more exercises. Furthermore, the older textbooks series show a clearer progression to the curriculum goals. The conclusions are that the two teaching materials have difficulties to deviate from the focus on grammatical terminology, but also to link grammar to students' own writing.