Swedish verb· top 2,000 most common

brinna

burn, be on fire/²brɪnːa/

Meaning

burn; be on fire

In Swedish: stå i lågor; lysa

Conjugation

Conjugation of brinna (burn)
Infinitive	att brinna	to burn
Present	brinner	jag brinner
Past	brann	jag brann
Supine	brunnit	used after har / hade
Perfect	har brunnit	jag har brunnit
Past perfect	hade brunnit	jag hade brunnit
Future	ska brinna	or: kommer att brinna
Conditional	skulle brinna	jag skulle brinna
Imperative	brinn!	a command
Present participle	brinnande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	brunnen	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of brinna
Infinitive	brinnas
Present	brinns
Past	branns
Supine	brunnits

Group 4: strong and irregular verbs. Strong verbs change their vowel and have a supine in -it (skriva, skrev, skrivit); irregular ones such as göra and ha follow no pattern. Both have to be learned one by one. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use brinner. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise brinna

1 / 2

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

brinna in a sentence

huset brinner
the house is ablaze
han brann av iver att få försöka
he was desperately eager to try
Om man tänder eld på något börjar det brinna
If you light something on fire, it starts to burn
Det brinner! Ring brandkåren.
There is a fire [It is burning]! Call the fire department.

Expressions

det brinner i knutarna
there's no time to lose
ett brinnande ("starkt") intresse för musik
a passionate ("strong") interest in music

Questions

What does brinna mean in English?

brinna means “burn, be on fire”.

What is the past tense of brinna?

The past tense of brinna is brann (“jag brann”). The supine is brunnit, used in “jag har brunnit”.

What is the present tense of brinna?

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

Origin

From Old Swedish brinna, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną.

Nearby common words

brinna is number 1,414 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

1,410lagt placed
1,411relation relation, relationship
1,412föreslå suggest, propose
1,413fånge prisoner, inmate
1,415eva woman
1,416rädsla fear, dread
1,417skrivit wrote
1,418katt cat

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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