The present paper investigates word associations in beginner learners of Swedish as L3. Word associations can be understood as links that connect words in the human mind and therefore they can shed light on how language learners build their mental lexicon. Three general types of word associations can be distinguished: phonological, paradigmatic and syntagmatic. Previous studies have shown that the first type occurs in children acquiring their first language and in second language learners while paradigmatic and syntagmatic associations can be found in adults L1-speakers. 28 Polish adult learners of L3 Swedish participated in the study in which they were asked to fulfil the Swedish version of Kent-Rosanoff word list. The analysis has shown that multilinguals at the beginning stage of their L3-learning translate words into one of their background languages – most often L1-Polish. Word associations in these learners are also complex in nature: in most cases students had clang associations combined with other types, such as translation, paradigmatic or syntagmatic.