Swedish verb· top 100 most common

behöva

need, want, require, have to/bɛˈhøːva/

Meaning

need; want; require; have to; need to

In Swedish: ha behov av

Conjugation

Conjugation of behöva (need)
Infinitive	att behöva	to need
Present	behöver	jag behöver
Past	behövde	jag behövde
Supine	behövt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har behövt	jag har behövt
Past perfect	hade behövt	jag hade behövt
Future	ska behöva	or: kommer att behöva
Conditional	skulle behöva	jag skulle behöva
Imperative	behöv!	a command
Present participle	behövande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	behövd	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of behöva
Infinitive	behövas
Present	behövs
Past	behövdes
Supine	behövts

Group 2: -er verbs. Present -er, past -de or -te (after a voiceless consonant), supine -t. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use behöver. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise behöva

1 / 2

Yesterday I … (behöva). Which is the past tense?

behöva in a sentence

han behövde hjälp
he was in need of assistance
jag behöver hundra kronor
I need a hundred kronor
hon vann utan att behöva anstränga sig
she won without even having to try

Questions

What does behöva mean in English?

behöva means “need, want”.

What is the past tense of behöva?

The past tense of behöva is behövde (“jag behövde”). The supine is behövt, used in “jag har behövt”.

What is the present tense of behöva?

behöver, the same for every person: jag behöver, du behöver, vi behöver.

Where the course teaches it

Origin

behov + -a, cognate with English behoove (US) / behove (UK) and Dutch behoeven.

Nearby common words

behöva is number 81 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

77få get, receive
78sa said
79in into
80igen back, again
82mitt my, in the middle (at or around the middle, spatially or more abstractly), (often) right
83nåt syncopic form of något (“something, anything”)
84mycket very much, greatly
85går goes, walks, goes, runs

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Sources: Folkets lexikon (CC BY-SA 2.5) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), edited by Lingolib. Recording: Wikimedia Commons. Browse the dictionary