Swedish verb· top 5,000 most common

tiga

keep silent/²tiːɡa/

Meaning

keep silent

In Swedish: inte säga något

Conjugation

Conjugation of tiga (keep silent)
Infinitive	att tiga	to keep silent
Present	tiger	jag tiger
Past	teg	jag teg
Supine	tigit	used after har / hade
Perfect	har tigit	jag har tigit
Past perfect	hade tigit	jag hade tigit
Future	ska tiga	or: kommer att tiga
Conditional	skulle tiga	jag skulle tiga
Imperative	tig!	a command
Present participle	tigande	-ing, used as an adjective

Passive (-s form)

Passive of tiga
Infinitive	tigas
Present	tigs
Past	tegs
Supine	tigits

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 tiger. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise tiga

1 / 2

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

tiga in a sentence

jag har lovat att tiga om saken
I've promised not to say anything about that
Hon teg
She kept quiet
De kommer försöka tiga ihjäl boken
They will try to kill the book (containing accusations or the like) through silence

Questions

What does tiga mean in English?

tiga means “keep silent”.

What is the past tense of tiga?

The past tense of tiga is teg (“jag teg”). The supine is tigit, used in “jag har tigit”.

What is the present tense of tiga?

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

Origin

From Old Swedish þighia, from Old Norse þegja, from Proto-Germanic *þagjaną.

Nearby common words

tiga is number 3,277 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

3,273stöld theft
3,274utsida outside
3,275baka bake
3,276omringa surround
3,278amiral admiral
3,279utforska investigate
3,280tränga push, jostle, force
3,281kärring old woman, wife

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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