Swedish verb· top 500 most common

fatta

understand, get, grasp, catch

Meaning

understand; get; grasp; catch; be brief

In Swedish: ta, gripa

Conjugation

Conjugation of fatta (understand)
Infinitive	att fatta	to understand
Present	fattar	jag fattar
Past	fattade	jag fattade
Supine	fattat	used after har / hade
Perfect	har fattat	jag har fattat
Past perfect	hade fattat	jag hade fattat
Future	ska fatta	or: kommer att fatta
Conditional	skulle fatta	jag skulle fatta
Imperative	fatta!	a command
Present participle	fattande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	fattad	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of fatta
Infinitive	fattas
Present	fattas
Past	fattades
Supine	fattats

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 fattar. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise fatta

1 / 2

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

fatta in a sentence

fatta tag om något
take hold of something
fatta ett beslut
come to (make) a decision
fatta vad saken gäller
understand what something is about
Han fattade spaden och började gräva
He grabbed the shovel and started digging
att fatta ett beslut
to make a decision
Han fattade tycke för deras kebabsås
He took a liking to their kebab sauce
Jag fattar inte vad du säger
I don't understand what you're saying
Det fattas två skruvar
Two screws are missing

Expressions

fatta misstankar
conceive a suspicion of
fatta sig kort
to put it briefly, be brief

Questions

What does fatta mean in English?

fatta means “understand, get”.

What is the past tense of fatta?

The past tense of fatta is fattade (“jag fattade”). The supine is fattat, used in “jag har fattat”.

What is the present tense of fatta?

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

Similar words

hajabegripaförstågreppagrabbakoppla

Origin

Borrowed from Middle Low German vāten, from Old Saxon *fatōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fatōn, from Proto-Germanic *fatōną.

Nearby common words

fatta is number 351 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

347fast firm, permanent
348galen mad, crazy
349hörd heard (listened to), interrogated (short for förhörd)
350tänk Expresses (mild) thoughtful amazement.
352lägga put, place
353idag today, today (on the current day)
354sagt said
355månad month

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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