Swedish verb· top 5,000 most common

kväva

smother, suffocate

Meaning

smother; suffocate

In Swedish: hindra att andas

Conjugation

Conjugation of kväva (smother)
Infinitive	att kväva	to smother
Present	kväver	jag kväver
Past	kvävde	jag kvävde
Supine	kvävt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har kvävt	jag har kvävt
Past perfect	hade kvävt	jag hade kvävt
Future	ska kväva	or: kommer att kväva
Conditional	skulle kväva	jag skulle kväva
Imperative	kväv!	a command
Present participle	kvävande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	kvävd	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of kväva
Infinitive	kvävas
Present	kvävs
Past	kvävdes
Supine	kvävts

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 kväver. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise kväva

1 / 2

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

kväva in a sentence

med kvävd röst
choking on one's words
kväva alla upprorsförsök
smother all attempts at rebellion
elden kvävdes med en filt
the fire was smothered with a blanket
Han kvävde honom
He suffocated him
Han kvävdes
He suffocated

Questions

What does kväva mean in English?

kväva means “smother, suffocate”.

What is the past tense of kväva?

The past tense of kväva is kvävde (“jag kvävde”). The supine is kvävt, used in “jag har kvävt”.

What is the present tense of kväva?

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

Origin

From Old Swedish kvæfia, qvæfia, (compare Old Icelandic kvefja, kefja), from Proto-Germanic *kwēbijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₂bʰ- (“to dive, dive in”).

Nearby common words

kväva is number 4,345 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

4,341tolerera tolerate
4,342örn eagle
4,343återskapa re-create
4,344mordvapen murder weapon
4,346bakifrån from behind, from the back
4,347tagning take (film sequence recorded continuously in one go)
4,348artig courteous, polite
4,349sikt view, visibility

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Sources: Folkets lexikon (CC BY-SA 2.5) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), edited by Lingolib. Browse the dictionary