Swedish verb· top 1,000 most common

gälla

pertain to, apply, concern, be valid, be in effect

Meaning

pertain to, apply, concern; be valid, be in effect

In Swedish: handla om, röra, angå

Conjugation

Conjugation of gälla (pertain to)
Infinitive	att gälla	to pertain to
Present	gäller	jag gäller
Past	gällde	jag gällde
Supine	gällt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har gällt	jag har gällt
Past perfect	hade gällt	jag hade gällt
Future	ska gälla	or: kommer att gälla
Conditional	skulle gälla	jag skulle gälla
Imperative	gäll!	a command
Present participle	gällande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	gälld	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of gälla
Infinitive	gällas
Present	gälls
Past	gälldes
Supine	gällts

Group 2: -er verbs. Present -er, past -de or -te (after a voiceless consonant), supine -t. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use gäller. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise gälla

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

gälla in a sentence

Det gäller att handla snabbt!
It's important to act quickly!
det gäller livet
it's a matter of life and death
hastighetsbegränsningen gäller fortfarande
the speed limit still applies
gällande regler
current rules

Questions

What does gälla mean in English?

gälla means “pertain to, apply, concern, be valid, be in effect”.

What is the past tense of gälla?

The past tense of gälla is gällde (“jag gällde”). The supine is gällt, used in “jag har gällt”.

What is the present tense of gälla?

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

Similar words

hänföra sig till

Origin

From Old Swedish giælda, giælla, gælla, from Old Norse gjalda, from Proto-Germanic *geldaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”).

Nearby common words

gälla is number 554 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

549affär shop, store
550bruka be in the habit of, use to
551fint trick, feint
552förut before
555kapten captain, lieutenant
556iväg away [from]
557försök attempt, trial, experiment
558direkt direct

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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