Swedish verb· top 500 most common

börja

begin, start, commence

Meaning

begin; start; commence

In Swedish: starta, inleda

Conjugation

Conjugation of börja (begin)
Infinitive	att börja	to begin
Present	börjar	jag börjar
Past	började	jag började
Supine	börjat	used after har / hade
Perfect	har börjat	jag har börjat
Past perfect	hade börjat	jag hade börjat
Future	ska börja	or: kommer att börja
Conditional	skulle börja	jag skulle börja
Imperative	börja!	a command
Present participle	börjande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	börjad	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of börja
Infinitive	börjas
Present	börjas
Past	börjades
Supine	börjats

Group 1: -ar verbs. Present -ar, past -ade, supine -at. The largest and most regular group. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use börjar. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise börja

1 / 2

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

börja in a sentence

du kan börja med att klippa gräset
you can start by mowing the lawn
vi måste börja tänka i nya banor
we'll have to start thinking in an entirely new way
jag började om igen
I started again from the beginning
Skolan börjar klockan åtta.
School begins at eight o'clock.
Brandon har börjat lära sig svenska.
Brandon has started learning Swedish.

Questions

What does börja mean in English?

börja means “begin, start”.

What is the past tense of börja?

The past tense of börja is började (“jag började”). The supine is börjat, used in “jag har börjat”.

What is the present tense of börja?

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

Similar words

startagå av stapelnbegynnainledarandaskomma igånguppstarta

Origin

From Old Swedish byria, from Old Norse byrja, from Proto-Germanic *burjaną.

Nearby common words

börja is number 132 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

128vår our
129hjälpa help, assist, aid, help
130hit this way, here
131kunde could
133fråga ask
134varit been
135mot against, towards, (toward (US))
136ner down, down; in a direction downwards

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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