Swedish verb· top 5,000 most common

brista

be lacking, fall short, snap, split/²brɪsːta/

Meaning

be lacking; fall short; snap; split; break; burst

In Swedish: utgöra brist, fattas; sakna

Conjugation

Conjugation of brista (be lacking)
Infinitive	att brista	to be lacking
Present	brister	jag brister
Past	brast	jag brast
Supine	brustit	used after har / hade
Perfect	har brustit	jag har brustit
Past perfect	hade brustit	jag hade brustit
Future	ska brista	or: kommer att brista
Conditional	skulle brista	jag skulle brista
Imperative	brist!	a command
Present participle	bristande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	brusten	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of brista
Infinitive	bristas
Present	brists
Past	brasts
Supine	brustits

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 brister. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise brista

1 / 2

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

brista in a sentence

bristande kunskaper
insufficient knowledge
brista i uppmärksamhet
lack of attention
ett brustet hjärta
a broken heart
isen kan brista
the ice might break
brustna förhoppningar
shattered hopes
Den tunna isen brast
The thin ice broke
Domaren brister i objektivitet
The judge is lacking in objectivity

Expressions

brista i skratt
burst out laughing
det får bära eller brista
it's do or die, it's neck or nothing

Questions

What does brista mean in English?

brista means “be lacking, fall short”.

What is the past tense of brista?

The past tense of brista is brast (“jag brast”). The supine is brustit, used in “jag har brustit”.

What is the present tense of brista?

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

Similar words

kreperagå sönderrämna

Origin

From Old Swedish brista, from Old Norse bresta, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”).

Nearby common words

brista is number 4,980 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

4,976motståndsrörelse resistance (underground organization)
4,977uppmärksam attentive
4,978medlidande compassion
4,979hängiven devoted, affectionate
4,981förtjänst good side (point), merit
4,982mäklare agent, broker
4,983stängsel fence
4,984redaktör editor

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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