Swedish verb· top 5,000 most common

stava

spell/ˈstɑː.va/

Meaning

spell

In Swedish: lägga ihop bokstäver till ord, bokstavera

Conjugation

Conjugation of stava (spell)
Infinitive	att stava	to spell
Present	stavar	jag stavar
Past	stavade	jag stavade
Supine	stavat	used after har / hade
Perfect	har stavat	jag har stavat
Past perfect	hade stavat	jag hade stavat
Future	ska stava	or: kommer att stava
Conditional	skulle stava	jag skulle stava
Imperative	stava!	a command
Present participle	stavande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	stavad	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of stava
Infinitive	stavas
Present	stavas
Past	stavades
Supine	stavats

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 stavar. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise stava

1 / 2

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

stava in a sentence

hon stavade fel på alla svåra ord
she spelled all the difficult words wrong
Hur stavar du ditt förnamn?
How do you spell your first name?

Questions

What does stava mean in English?

stava means “spell”.

What is the past tense of stava?

The past tense of stava is stavade (“jag stavade”). The supine is stavat, used in “jag har stavat”.

What is the present tense of stava?

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

Origin

From Old Swedish stava, from Old Norse stafa, equivalent to stav (“letter”) + -a.

Nearby common words

stava is number 3,533 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

3,529baserad based
3,530rutin routine, experience
3,531medalj medal
3,532stuckit gone
3,534häromdagen the other day
3,535kirurg surgeon
3,536nonsens nonsense
3,537nuvarande present

Start today, free

Learn stava in real Swedish, free

Words stick when you hear them used. Complete Swedish Season 1 is 49 short video lessons with a synced transcript, free on the site with no account. A free account saves words like stava to your library and quizzes you on them, plus 7 days of the AI tutor and speaking practice when you confirm your email.

Season 1 free in full: 49 lessons
Synced transcript with English translations
7-day free trial of the AI tutor and speaking practice
Members get the latest season and every new course

Watch lesson 1 free Create a free account

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