Swedish verb· top 1,000 most common

välja

choose/²vɛlːja/

Meaning

choose

In Swedish: bestämma sig för (en av flera möjligheter)

Conjugation

Conjugation of välja (choose)
Infinitive	att välja	to choose
Present	väljer	jag väljer
Past	valde	jag valde
Supine	valt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har valt	jag har valt
Past perfect	hade valt	jag hade valt
Future	ska välja	or: kommer att välja
Conditional	skulle välja	jag skulle välja
Imperative	välj!	a command
Present participle	väljande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	vald	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of välja
Infinitive	väljas
Present	väljs
Past	valdes
Supine	valts

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 väljer. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise välja

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

välja in a sentence

välja mellan två onda ting
choose the lesser of two evils
välja ordförande
elect a chairman
familjen valde att flytta till Sverige
the family opted to move to Sweden
Det var ett svårt val, men jag valde den gröna
It was a tough choice, but I chose the green one
Han valdes till kung
He was elected king

Questions

What does välja mean in English?

välja means “choose”.

What is the past tense of välja?

The past tense of välja is valde (“jag valde”). The supine is valt, used in “jag har valt”.

What is the present tense of välja?

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

Similar words

utseselektera

Origin

From Old Swedish vælia, from Old Norse velja, from Proto-Germanic *waljaną.

Nearby common words

välja is number 577 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

573ikväll this evening, tonight
574ursäkt excuse
575mest most
576flera several
578söka search, look for
579nytt newly
580undan away, out of the way
581allihop everybody, everybody, everyone, all people

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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