få
How få is used
Få is one of the hardest little verbs in Swedish because it covers several English ideas: to get or receive (jag fick ett brev), to be allowed to (får jag komma in?) and, with the present tense, to have to (du får vänta). As an adjective, få means few.
få as a verb
Meaning
get; receive; may; have to
In Swedish: ta emot, erhålla
Conjugation
| Infinitive | att få | to get |
|---|---|---|
| Present | får | jag får |
| Past | fick | jag fick |
| Supine | fått | used after har / hade |
| Perfect | har fått | jag har fått |
| Past perfect | hade fått | jag hade fått |
| Future | ska få | or: kommer att få |
| Conditional | skulle få | jag skulle få |
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 får. See the four verb groups explained.
få as an adjective
Meaning
few
In Swedish: inte många
Forms
| Basic form | få | with en-words |
|---|---|---|
| Comparative | färre | “-er”, “more …” |
| Superlative | minst | “-est”, “most …” |
Practise få
1 / 2Yesterday I … (få). Which is the past tense?
få in a sentence
- Får jag sitta här?May I sit here?
- Jag fick en present.I got a present.
- Du får vänta lite.You'll have to wait a little.
- få en helt annan uppfattningget a completely different impression
- få arbeteget work
- få bort (en fläck)remove, get rid of (a stain)
- få en presentget a present
- få fram (fakta)produce, elicit (facts)
- jag fick se en bilI got to see a car
- Får jag stiga in?May I come in?
Expressions
- få syn påcatch sight of
- få lov atthave to, be forced to
- få tillfälle attget the chance to, have the opportunity to
- få ("ta") med sig (tandborsten)have ("take") (your toothbrush) with you
- få med ("publicera") en artikel i en tidningget ("publish") an article in a paper
- få bukt medget the better of, manage
Questions
What does få mean in English?
få means “get, receive”.
What is the past tense of få?
The past tense of få is fick (“jag fick”). The supine is fått, used in “jag har fått”.
What is the present tense of få?
får, the same for every person: jag får, du får, vi får.
Similar words
Where the course teaches it
- Swedish past tense: -te and -de endingsComplete Swedish – Season 2
- Swedish bakery vocabulary and fikaComplete Swedish – Season 2
- Eftersom versus på grund av: because in SwedishComplete Swedish – Season 2
- Swedish kitchen vocabulary and the verb föredraComplete Swedish – Season 2
- Den versus det: Swedish for thatComplete Swedish – Season 2
Origin
From Old Swedish fār, from Old Norse fár, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz.
Nearby common words
få is number 77 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.
Learn få in real Swedish, free
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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

