Present forms of the participle are adjective-like words formed from a verb (e.g. lovande = promising). They are often translated into English with ending –ing.

Denna högskola verkar lovande.

This college seems promising.

The present participle is formed with the suffix –ande or –ende. If the base form of the verb ends with the letter a (e.g. cykla), the present participle is formed with the ending –ande. In other cases, the ending is –ende. The comparative and superlative of the present participle are formed with the words mer(a) and mest. Note that the form of the present participle does not change.

The past participles are adjective-like words formed from verbs. They are often translated into English with ending –ed. The past participles are compared with the words mer(a) and mest.

Like adjectives, past participles also have en, ett and plural/definitive forms (e.g. hotad, hotat, hotade), which are used in the same way as adjectives. The past participles are most often formed by removing the letter e from the end of the past verb tense, resulting in the en form of the past participle:

For example, the past participles formed from the following verbs are irregular and should be memorized:

gå -> gången, gånget, gångna

ge -> given, givet, givna

lägga -> lagd, lagt, lagda

se -> sedd, sett, sedda

säga -> sagd, sagt, sagda

For verbs whose supine form ends in –it (e.g. exaggerate =  överdriva, -driver, -drev, -drivit), the past participle is formed by removing the suffix –it and adding instead the suffix –en, –et or –na (överdriven, -drivet, -drivna).

konsekvenser är helt överdrivna

consequences are totally exaggerated