Swedish verb conjugation: the four groups explained

Why Swedish verbs are easier than they look

Swedish verbs have one enormous advantage over French, Spanish or German verbs: they do not change for person. Jag pratar, du pratar, hon pratar, vi pratar, de pratar. One form for everyone. Once you know four or five forms of a verb, you know the whole verb.

Those forms are:

The question for every verb is simply: which pattern does it follow to get from the infinitive to those forms? Swedish has four groups. Three of them are regular and predictable. The fourth, the strong and irregular verbs, is small but contains most of the verbs you use every day.

If you want every form of a specific verb, the Swedish verb conjugator will give it to you. This guide explains the system behind it.

The four verb groups at a glance

The quickest way to identify the group of a verb you already know is the present tense. If it ends in -ar, it is group 1. If it ends in -er, it is group 2 or group 4. If the infinitive is a single syllable ending in a vowel other than -a, it is probably group 3.

Group 1: verbs in -ar

Group 1 is by far the largest group, the large majority of verbs in the dictionary, and it is completely regular. New verbs almost always join it: googla, mejla, swisha ("pay with Swish").

The rule: keep the infinitive and add -r for the present, -de for the past, -t for the supine. The imperative is the same as the infinitive: Titta! (Look!).

Group 2: verbs in -er

In group 2 the infinitive -a drops and the present ends in -er. The past and supine depend on the sound at the end of the stem (the infinitive minus -a).

Group 2a: -de and -t

If the stem ends in a voiced sound (like g, l, m, n, r, v), the past is -de.

Two small spelling rules: a double consonant simplifies before -de and -t (glömma → glömde, glömt), and verbs whose stem ends in -r do not add another -er in the present (höra → hör, köra → kör).

Group 2b: -te and -t

If the stem ends in a voiceless sound (k, p, s, t, x), the past is -te.

You do not need to memorise the voiced/voiceless distinction consciously. Try saying "köpde" and "köpte" out loud. The -te version is simply easier to pronounce after p, and that is the whole reason the rule exists.

Group 3: short verbs

Group 3 contains short verbs whose infinitive is one syllable ending in a vowel other than unstressed -a. They add -r, -dde and -tt.

You will meet må in the first week: Hur mår du? ("How are you?"). A few other short verbs, such as gå, stå, se, le, be and dö, look like group 3 but are irregular. They are in the table below.

Group 4: strong and irregular verbs

Strong verbs change the vowel in the stem to form the past, and their supine ends in -it: skriva, skriver, skrev, skrivit. There are recurring vowel patterns, which help once you have met a few examples:

Then there are the truly irregular verbs, which follow no pattern at all, like göra, gjorde, gjort and gå, gick, gått. The only way to learn these is through use. The good news is that there are not many, and because they are the most common verbs in the language, you will get a lot of practice.

40 common irregular verbs

A few notes on this table:

• Sa and la are the normal spoken and written forms today. Sade and lade are more formal. Both are correct.
• Gett and givit are both correct; gett is more common in everyday Swedish.
• Bli has an informal supine blitt, which you will hear constantly; blivit is the standard written form.
• Veta means to know a fact. To know a person or a place is känna: Jag känner henne (I know her).
• Hinna has no neat English equivalent: Jag hann inte äta frukost means "I didn't have time to eat breakfast".
• Sätta, ställa and lägga all translate as "put", depending on whether the thing ends up sitting, standing or lying. Lägg boken på bordet (Put the book on the table), Ställ flaskan i kylen (Put the bottle in the fridge).

Tenses: how the forms combine

Swedish has no continuous tense. Jag läser covers both "I read" and "I am reading". When you want to stress that something is in progress, use håller på att: Jag håller på att laga mat (I'm cooking right now). Or use a position verb with och: Hon sitter och läser (She's sitting reading).

Like English, Swedish uses the past with a finished time (Jag såg filmen i går) and the perfect for experience up to now (Jag har sett filmen). The real difference is that Swedish uses the present tense much more freely for the future: Vi ses i morgon (See you tomorrow), Jag ringer dig sen (I'll call you later).

Modal verbs

Modal verbs are followed by an infinitive without att. This is the most common beginner error with them: it is Jag kan simma, never "jag kan att simma".

Three things to watch:

• Måste inte does not mean "must not". Du måste inte komma means "you don't have to come". To forbid something, use får inte: Du får inte parkera här (You can't park here).
• Får can also mean "have to" in the sense of being forced by circumstances: Vi fick gå hem (We had to go home). The same sentence can also mean "we were allowed to go home", and context decides.
• Brukar has no direct English equivalent. It is how Swedes say that something is a habit: Vi brukar äta middag vid sex (We usually have dinner at six).

With verbs like börja (start), sluta (stop) and försöka (try), att is optional and often dropped in speech: Jag har slutat röka, Hon försökte ringa.

For the past of måste, Swedes use either måste itself (Jag måste gå tidigt i går) or, more clearly, var tvungen att: Jag var tvungen att gå tidigt (I had to leave early).

The passive: -s forms

Swedish makes the passive in two main ways. The most common in writing is to add -s to the verb.

To form it, add -s to the active form, but drop the -er of the present first in group 2 and many strong verbs: köper → köps, säljer → säljs, skriver → skrivs. When the stem ends in -s, keep the -e-: läser → läses. Group 1 simply adds -s: öppnar → öppnas.

The other passive uses bli + past participle, and it often describes a single event or a change: Han blev påkörd av en bil (He was hit by a car). Vara + past participle describes a state rather than an action: Affären är stängd (The shop is closed).

Signs, instructions and news use the -s passive constantly, so it is worth being able to recognise: Här serveras lunch (Lunch is served here), Biljetter köps i automaten (Tickets are bought from the machine).

Deponent verbs: always -s, active meaning

Some verbs end in -s in every form but have an ordinary active meaning. They are called deponent verbs, and several are very common.

Finns is one of the most important words in the language, because det finns is "there is/are": Det finns mjölk i kylen (There's milk in the fridge). Trivas is lovely and untranslatable: Jag trivs i Sverige means roughly "I'm happy living in Sweden".

A related group uses -s to mean "each other": Vi ses! (See you!, literally "we see each other"), Vi hörs! (Speak soon!), De träffas varje fredag (They meet every Friday).

The imperative

The imperative is the stem of the verb: the infinitive without its final unstressed -a. Group 1 verbs keep the -a, because it is part of the stem.

A bare imperative can sound blunt, especially to a stranger. Swedes usually soften requests into questions: Kan du stänga dörren? (Can you close the door?), or add är du snäll at the end: Stäng dörren, är du snäll (Close the door, would you). Instructions and recipes, on the other hand, use the imperative freely: Blanda mjölet med sockret (Mix the flour with the sugar).

Particle verbs: a word of warning

Many common Swedish verbs combine with a small word, a particle, that changes the meaning completely. The particle is stressed.

In Jag tycker om dig (I like you) the stress falls on om, not on tycker, and without the particle the sentence means something else entirely: Jag tycker… is "I think…". Learn particle verbs as whole units, stress included, the same way you would learn "give up" in English.

How to learn Swedish verbs without drilling tables

Tables are useful for reference, and they are right there above whenever you need them. But reciting "skriva, skriver, skrev, skrivit" does not make you able to say Jag har skrivit till henne in a conversation. What works is using each form in a sentence you care about:

1. Learn new verbs with their past and supine at the same time, especially strong ones.
2. Say one sentence in each tense about your own life: Jag läser en bok. I går läste jag i två timmar. Jag har läst hälften.
3. Prioritise the 40 irregular verbs above. They make up a very large share of the verbs you will actually say.
4. Look up any verb in the verb conjugator when you are unsure, and then use the form out loud straight away.

For how verbs fit into sentences, especially the rule that puts the verb in second place, read the Swedish grammar overview.

FAQ

How many verb groups are there in Swedish?

Four. Group 1 verbs end in -ar in the present (prata, pratar), group 2 in -er (köpa, köper), group 3 are short verbs (bo, bor), and group 4 contains the strong and irregular verbs (skriva, skrev). Group 2 is often divided into 2a (past in -de) and 2b (past in -te).

Do Swedish verbs change for I, you, he and she?

No. Swedish verbs have one form for every person in each tense: jag är, du är, han är, vi är, de är. This is one of the easiest things about Swedish for English speakers.

What is the supine in Swedish?

The supine is the verb form used after har and hade to make the perfect tenses: har ätit (have eaten), hade skrivit (had written). For regular verbs it looks the same as the neuter past participle, but for strong verbs it ends in -it while the participle ends in -en: har skrivit but en skriven text.

What is the difference between ska and kommer att?

Ska is for plans, intentions and arrangements: Jag ska börja på en ny kurs (I'm going to start a new course). Kommer att is for predictions about things nobody decides: Det kommer att bli kallt i helgen (It's going to be cold this weekend).

Why do some Swedish verbs end in -s?

Either they are passive (dörren öppnas, the door is opened), reciprocal (vi ses, we'll see each other) or deponent, which means they always end in -s but have an active meaning, like hoppas (hope) and finnas (exist).

How do you say "used to" in Swedish?

For past habits, Swedes use brukade: Jag brukade spela fotboll (I used to play football). In the present, brukar means "usually": Jag brukar gå och lägga mig vid elva (I usually go to bed at eleven).

Put the verbs to work

In our lessons every new verb is met in a sentence you build and say yourself, and the ones you struggle with come back in speaking practice until the forms are automatic. Season 1 of Complete Swedish is free in full, with no account needed: start here. If you are working through grammar systematically, the en or ett guide is a good next step.