Swedish verb · noun· top 5,000 most common

riva

scratch, tear, grate, pull (tear) down

riva as a verb

Meaning

scratch; tear; grate; pull (tear) down; demolish

In Swedish: dra över (en yta) med ett vasst föremål

Conjugation

Conjugation of riva (scratch)
Infinitive	att riva	to scratch
Present	river	jag river
Past	rev	jag rev
Supine	rivit	used after har / hade
Perfect	har rivit	jag har rivit
Past perfect	hade rivit	jag hade rivit
Future	ska riva	or: kommer att riva
Conditional	skulle riva	jag skulle riva
Imperative	riv!	a command
Present participle	rivande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	riven	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of riva
Infinitive	rivas
Present	rivs
Past	revs
Supine	rivits

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 river. See the four verb groups explained.

riva as a noun

Meaning

short for bärriva (“berry picking tool”)

Practise riva

1 / 2

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

riva in a sentence

katten rev mig
the cat scratched (clawed) me
riva biljetter
tear tickets
riven ost
grated cheese
riva gamla hus
demolish old buildings

Expressions

riva upp (ett gammalt beslut)
tear up (an earlier decision)

Questions

What does riva mean in English?

riva means “scratch, tear”.

What is the past tense of riva?

The past tense of riva is rev (“jag rev”). The supine is rivit, used in “jag har rivit”.

What is the present tense of riva?

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

Similar words

ta ned

Origin

From Old Swedish rīva, from Old Norse rífa, from Proto-Germanic *rīfaną.

Nearby common words

riva is number 2,085 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

2,081fakta fact
2,082såja there, there
2,083lågt low, lowly, lowly, meanly
2,084pastor pastor
2,087vunnit won
2,088befria liberate, release
2,089spelare player
2,090behåll intact, unharmed, "still kept", condition, (in condition sense) keep

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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