Swedish verb· top 5,000 most common

spana

be on the look-out (for), search (for)Also the definite plural of spa./spɑːna/

Meaning

be on the look-out (for); search (for)

In Swedish: leta noggrant (med blicken)

Conjugation

Conjugation of spana (be on the look-out)
Infinitive	att spana	to be on the look-out
Present	spanar	jag spanar
Past	spanade	jag spanade
Supine	spanat	used after har / hade
Perfect	har spanat	jag har spanat
Past perfect	hade spanat	jag hade spanat
Future	ska spana	or: kommer att spana
Conditional	skulle spana	jag skulle spana
Imperative	spana!	a command
Present participle	spanande	-ing, used as an adjective

Passive (-s form)

Passive of spana
Infinitive	spanas
Present	spanas
Past	spanades
Supine	spanats

Group 1: -ar verbs. Present -ar, past -ade, supine -at. The largest and most regular group. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use spanar. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise spana

1 / 2

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

spana in a sentence

spana efter fiender
look for the enemy
spana efter tecken till förändring
look for signs of change

Questions

What does spana mean in English?

spana means “be on the look-out (for), search (for)”.

What is the past tense of spana?

The past tense of spana is spanade (“jag spanade”). The supine is spanat, used in “jag har spanat”.

What is the present tense of spana?

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

Similar words

spejatittakollahålla utkik efteriakttakika

Origin

Inherited from Old Swedish spana, from Old Norse *spana, from Proto-Germanic *spananą (“to lure, to entice”).

Nearby common words

spana is number 3,315 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

3,311handduk a towel (cloth for drying)
3,312skalla clang, ring, blast; resound, head
3,313suverän supreme, superb
3,314våt wet
3,316paketet package
3,317kola kick the bucket
3,318rid affective state of mind, while (indeterminate amount of time)
3,319krok hook

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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