7. Verb conjugation
A verb expresses an action or a state of being. Swedish verbs only inflect for different tenses, and as such have four different forms: the infinitive form (the base form), the present tense, the past tense and the past participle form.
Swedish verbs are divided into four conjugation categories:
Group 1
Most Swedish verbs belong into this group. All of them end with the letter a in their base form. The present tense ends with –ar and the past tense ends with -ade.
infinitive
titta
prata
tala
present
tittar
pratar
talar
past
tittade
pratade
talade
past participle
tittat
pratat
talat
Group 2
The present tense ends with -er and the past tense ends with either -de or -te. The ending of the past tense is -te only when the stem of the verb ends with one of the following letters: k, p, t, s, x. The stem of the verb can be revealed by removing the -er ending from the present tense form.
infinitive
stänga
ställa
söka
läsa
present
stänger
ställer
söker
läser
past
stängde
ställde
sökte
läste
past participle
stängt
ställt
sökt
läst
Group 3
This group consists of verbs containing only one syllable and of verbs that have been derived from verbs containing only one syllable. The present tense ending is -r and the past tense ending is -dde.
infinitive
bo
nå
bero
present
bor
når
beror
past
bodde
nådde
berodde
past participle
bott
nått
berott
Group 4 (strong and irregular verbs)
Strong verbs and irregular verbs are often placed in the same category. They have no uniform conjugation system, and so the forms have to be learned separately for each verb.
infinitive
skriva
hinna
vilja
ge
present
skriver
hinner
vill
ger
past
skrev
hann
ville
gav
past participle
skrivit
hunnit
velat
gett
Note! The present perfect and past perfect tenses are formed by adding a correct form of the verb ha in front of the past participle in the following way:
infinitive titta -> past participle tittat
Present perfect: ha tittat / har tittat = has looked
Past perfect: hade tittat = had looked
EXAMPLE:
Han har tittat på TV ganska mycket. He has watched quite a lot of TV.