Swedish verb· top 100 most common

säga

to say, to tell, to be said/²sɛjːa/

Meaning

to say; to tell; to be said

In Swedish: meddela i ord, uttala

Conjugation

Conjugation of säga (say)
Infinitive	att säga	to say
Present	säger	jag säger
Past	sade	jag sade
Supine	sagt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har sagt	jag har sagt
Past perfect	hade sagt	jag hade sagt
Future	ska säga	or: kommer att säga
Conditional	skulle säga	jag skulle säga
Imperative	säg!	a command
Present participle	sägande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	sagd	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of säga
Infinitive	sägas
Present	sägs
Past	sades
Supine	sagts

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 säger. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise säga

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

säga in a sentence

säga nej till kärnkraft
say no to nuclear power
problemet får sägas vara unikt
the problem may be said to be unique
resultatet var inte bra, sa läraren
the results were not good, said the teacher
Jag sa hej till honom
I said hi to him
Det är svårt att säga exakt vilket djur det är
It is hard to say exactly what animal it is
Säg mig vad du heter
Tell me your name
Säg inte att det är sant!
Don't tell me / say it's true!
Det sägs att det spökar på slottet
The castle is said to be haunted ("It is said that it is haunted in the castle")

Expressions

det vill säga
that is to say
det säger sig självt
it speaks for itself
så att säga
so to speak

Questions

What does säga mean in English?

säga means “to say, to tell”.

What is the past tense of säga?

The past tense of säga is sade (“jag sade”). The supine is sagt, used in “jag har sagt”.

What is the present tense of säga?

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

Similar words

uppge

Where the course teaches it

Origin

From Old Swedish sæghia, sighia, from Old Norse segja, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ-.

Nearby common words

säga is number 56 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

52bra good, excellent
53då then, at that time, then
54när when, near
55kom came
57oss us
58man man, person
59bli become, get
60får sheep

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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