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Swedish verb · noun· top 100 most common

göra

do, make, cause/²jøːra/

How göra is used

Göra means to do or to make. It is irregular: gör, gjorde, gjort. The g- before ö is soft, and in gjorde and gjort the gj- is pronounced like a y.

göra as a verb

Meaning

do; make; cause

In Swedish: syssla med

Conjugation

Conjugation of göra (do)
Infinitiveatt görato do
Presentgörjag gör
Pastgjordejag gjorde
Supinegjortused after har / hade
Perfecthar gjortjag har gjort
Past perfecthade gjortjag hade gjort
Futureska göraor: kommer att göra
Conditionalskulle görajag skulle göra
Imperativegör!a command
Present participlegörande-ing, used as an adjective
Past participlegjordused like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of göra
Infinitivegöras
Presentgörs
Pastgjordes
Supinegjorts

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 gör. See the four verb groups explained.

göra as a noun(ett göra)

Meaning

work, task

Forms

Forms of göra
Singular, indefiniteett göra
Singular, definitegörat

göra is an ett-word, so adjectives agree with it: ett stort göra, det stora görat. Check another noun

Practise göra

1 / 2

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

göra in a sentence

  • Vad gör du?
    What are you doing?
  • Jag gjorde det själv.
    I did it myself.
  • Det gör ingenting.
    It doesn't matter.
  • göra möbler
    make furniture
  • göra mat
    prepare food
  • det gör ont i armen
    my arm hurts
  • göra programmet intressant
    make the programme interesting
  • göra sitt bästa
    do one's best
  • göra något möjligt
    make sth. possible
  • klimatet gör att växten inte trivs
    the climate is not good for the plant

Expressions

  • ha att göra med
    have to do with
  • det gör ingenting/detsamma
    it makes no difference

Questions

What does göra mean in English?

göra means “do, make”.

Is it en göra or ett göra?

It is ett göra, and “the work” is görat.

What is the past tense of göra?

The past tense of göra is gjorde (“jag gjorde”). The supine is gjort, used in “jag har gjort”.

What is the present tense of göra?

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

Similar words

uträttautföraproduceratillverkaåstadkomma

Where the course teaches it

Origin

* From Old Swedish gøra, gæra, giora, from Old Norse gera, gøra, gørva, from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną.

Nearby common words

göra is number 29 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

  • 25till to, until
  • 26kan can
  • 27de they
  • 28men but
  • 30ni you
  • 31ska will, be going to, (except not formal in tone, but a literal match for meaning) shall, is to; (in the past tense "skulle") were to; was to (Usually not sensible translations, but will provide the right intuition in some tricky cases – see below.)
  • 32ett a, an, one
  • 33av of, by
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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