Swedish verb· top 2,000 most common

skilja

separate, part, sever; divide, distinguish, differentiate, tell apart/²ɧɪlja/

Meaning

separate, part, sever; divide; distinguish, differentiate, tell apart

In Swedish: avlägsna

Conjugation

Conjugation of skilja (separate)
Infinitive	att skilja	to separate
Present	skiljer	jag skiljer
Past	skilde	jag skilde
Supine	skilt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har skilt	jag har skilt
Past perfect	hade skilt	jag hade skilt
Future	ska skilja	or: kommer att skilja
Conditional	skulle skilja	jag skulle skilja
Imperative	skilj!	a command
Present participle	skiljande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	skild	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of skilja
Infinitive	skiljas
Present	skiljs
Past	skildes
Supine	skilts

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 skiljer. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise skilja

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

skilja in a sentence

skilja de stridande åt
separate the combatants
skilja på (el. mellan) verklighet och fantasi
distinguish between fact and fiction
skilja agnarna från vetet
separate the wheat from the chaff
kunna skilja på höger och vänster
be able to distinguish between right and left
kunna skilja höger från vänster
ditto
skilja på två fenomen / skilja två fenomen åt
separate two phenomena
Äpplen och päron skiljer sig (åt) på så sätt att de är olika frukter
Apples and pears differ in that they are different fruits
De bestämde sig för att skilja sig
They decided to get a divorce

Questions

What does skilja mean in English?

skilja means “separate, part, sever; divide, distinguish, differentiate, tell apart”.

What is the past tense of skilja?

The past tense of skilja is skilde (“jag skilde”). The supine is skilt, used in “jag har skilt”.

What is the present tense of skilja?

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

Similar words

separerasplittradelalösgörasära

Origin

From Old Swedish skilia, from Old Norse skilja, from Proto-Germanic *skiljaną (“to separate, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”).

Nearby common words

skilja is number 1,695 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

1,691gård yard, (country) estate
1,692by village, gust
1,693himla awful, really
1,694kaka cake, cookie
1,696sorg distress, sorrow
1,697försvunnen lost, disappeared
1,698sår wound, cut
1,699lisa to relieve, to alleviate (pain or worries)

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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