Swedish verb· top 500 most common

heta

be called (named), be said to beAlso the plural of het./²heːˌta/

Meaning

be called (named); be said to be

In Swedish: ha som namn, kallas

Conjugation

Conjugation of heta (be called)
Infinitiveatt hetato be called
Presentheterjag heter
Pasthettejag hette
Supinehetatused after har / hade
Perfecthar hetatjag har hetat
Past perfecthade hetatjag hade hetat
Futureska hetaor: kommer att heta
Conditionalskulle hetajag skulle heta

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 heter. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise heta

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

heta in a sentence

  • Vad heter det på engelska?
    What's it called in English?
  • ... heter det i rapporten
    ... says the report
  • jag heter Kerstin
    my name's Kerstin
  • det hette om henne att hon hatade karlar
    she was reputed to have hated men
  • Vad heter du?
    What's your name?
  • Vad heter det på svenska?
    What is it called in Swedish?
  • Landet Sri Lanka hette förr Ceylon.
    The country of Sri Lanka was formerly called Ceylon.
  • I deras egen rapport heter det att de hade bygglov
    In their own report, they claim that they had a building permit

Questions

What does heta mean in English?

heta means “be called (named), be said to be”.

What is the past tense of heta?

The past tense of heta is hette (“jag hette”). The supine is hetat, used in “jag har hetat”.

What is the present tense of heta?

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

Where the course teaches it

Origin

From Old Swedish hēta, from Old Norse heita, from Proto-Germanic *haitaną.

Nearby common words

heta is number 232 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

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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