Swedish verb· top 2,000 most common

bära

carry; wear

Meaning

carry; wear

In Swedish: gå med en börda; ha på sig

Conjugation

Conjugation of bära (carry)
Infinitive	att bära	to carry
Present	bär	jag bär
Past	bar	jag bar
Supine	burit	used after har / hade
Perfect	har burit	jag har burit
Past perfect	hade burit	jag hade burit
Future	ska bära	or: kommer att bära
Conditional	skulle bära	jag skulle bära
Imperative	bär!	a command
Present participle	bärande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	buren	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of bära
Infinitive	bäras
Present	bärs
Past	bars
Supine	burits

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 bär. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise bära

1 / 2

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

bära in a sentence

Vem bär ansvaret?
Who is responsible?
han bar namnet Alfred
he went by the name of Alfred
hon bar en blommig klänning
she wore a floral print
bära vatten
fetch water
Jag hoppas isen bär
I hope the ice will carry us (will be able to support us)
Äppelträdet bär mycket mer än i fjol
The apple tree has produced / is bearing / yields much more [fruit] than last year
Ansträngningarna bar frukt
The efforts proved fruitful (bore fruit)

Words built with bära

bärbar portable
bärsele baby carrier
bärkraftig strong, capable of bearing weight

Questions

What does bära mean in English?

bära means “carry; wear”.

What is the past tense of bära?

The past tense of bära is bar (“jag bar”). The supine is burit, used in “jag har burit”.

What is the present tense of bära?

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

Origin

From Old Swedish bæra, from Old Norse bera, from Proto-Germanic *beraną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (whence also börja, bår and barn).

Nearby common words

bära is number 1,136 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

1,132hota threaten, menace
1,133blåljuga to lie outright, to lie through one's teeth
1,134njuta enjoy
1,135tillstånd permission, state
1,137ärlig honest
1,138klä dress, become
1,139te tea
1,140undvika avoid

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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