Verb structures can be divided into two main categories: the active and the passive voice. The active voice expresses what the subject of the sentence is doing, whereas the passive voice expresses what is being done to the subject of the sentence, often leaving out the person actually performing the action.
| Active voice | Passive voice |
|---|---|
| Han ska renovera villan. | Villan ska renoveras. |
| He will renovate the villa. | The villa will be renovated. |
A common way to form a passive verb structure in Swedish is the s-passive. The s-passive is formed by taking the object of the active sentence and moving it into the place of the subject in that sentence. After this, the letter s is placed after the main verb to mark the verb as having a passive form.
| Active voice | Passive voice |
|---|---|
| En kvinna öppnade dörren för mig. | Dörren öppnades för mig. |
| A woman opened the door for me. | The door was opened for me. |
When forming the s-passive in the present tense, extra care must be taken. The s-marker of the s-passive is attached to the verb according to the following rules:
Verb group I: infinitive + s (älska -> älskas)
Verb groups II, III and IV: verb stem + s (skriva -> skriv/er -> skrivs)
Verb stems ending with s: verb stem + es (läsa -> läs/er -> läses)
Vi talar engelska i skolan varje dag. -> Engelska talas i skolan varje dag.
Ungdomar dricker för mycket läsk. -> Läsk dricks för mycket.
In other tenses the s-marker is simply added to the end of the main verb:
Vi valde henne till president. -> Hon valdes till president.
Jag gav henne boken. -> Hon gavs boken.
If need be, the original subject of the active sentence doesn’t have to be left out, but can be added into the passive sentence as an agent with the help of the preposition av:
| Active voice | Passive voice + agent |
|---|---|
| En kvinna öppnade dörren för mig. | Dörren öppnades för mig av en kvinna. |
Note that in the present and past perfect forms, the letter s is only added after the supine (hyllats), and no changes need to be made to the auxiliary verb har/hade:
Vårt nya poddavsnitt hade hyllats av lyssnarna.
Our new podcast episode had been praised by the listeners.
The pronoun man is used as the subject of a sentence when talking about people in general. It is often equivalent to the English “you”, when talking about something in a passive sense:
Man använder sociala medier mycket mer idag än förr.
You use a lot more social media today than you used to.
The object form of the pronoun man is en:
Vad ska man göra om följarna missförstår en och blir arga?
What should you do if followers misunderstand you and become angry?