Swedish past tense
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Swedish past tense
Hej! Today we will have a look on how to construct past sentences which are useful when expressing ourselves regarding events who have already happened. Whilst speaking Swedish you will often have to use the past tense, therefore it is important that you know how everything works!
The past tense is pretty simple and is employed the same way as the English language. It consists of the present tense and their supine form. You get the past tense by using the imperfect form instead of the present tense. The imperfect form is created by adding a suffix to the stem. Confusing? Don't worry this lesson will make you understand the past tense very quickly.
A quick summary
There are two tenses which express the past in Swedish. The past simple and present perfect, "Preteritum" and "Perfekt".
We distinguish five groups of verbs which follows;
Group I - most of the Swedish verbs belong to this group
Group II - vers that end with -s, -p, -t and -k.
Group III - those are short verbs that end with vowels, ie; bo, tro , må
Group IV - irregular verbs
Note! each form of the verb depends on the group that a verb belongs to.
Have a look at the following sentences;
- Jag skrivde brevet igår - I wrote the letter yersterday.
- Han läste boken om tre veckor sedan. He read the book about three weeks ago.
- Esa köpte nya skor i fredags. Esa bought new shoes last Friday.
Look at the table below in order to see how the verbs are constructed.
| prata , träna | pratade , tränade | -ade | talk , train | Group I |
| ringa, glömma | ringde, glömde | -de | call , forget | Group II |
| läsa, köpa | läste , köpte | - te | read (learn) , buy | Group II b |
| bo, tro | bodde , trodde | - dde | live (occupy) , believe | Group III |
| komma , skriva | kom , skrev | några olika | go, write | Group IV |
Have a go at writing your own sentences and use the table as guideline if your are unsure.
Swedish imperfect and perfect tense
In order to create the imperfect tense you add 'de' to the stem, however it will not be added if the stem ends with a voiceless consonant i.e: (f, k, p, s, t etc.) that's when you attach 'te'.
In regards to the supine (indifferent), it is formed by attaching 't' to the stem.
As this group consists of many irregular verbs, In the imperfect tense most Swedish verbs don't have a suffix. They simply just change the stem-vowel. In the supine, most verbs change the stem-vowel again and add 'ít' or 'at' at the end. Have a look at the table below for for examples.
| tala (speak) | tala- | talade | talat | har talat | hade talat |
| ringa (call) | ring- | ringde | ringt | har ringt | hade ringt |
| springa (to run) | spring- | sprang | sprungit | har sprungit | hade sprungit |
| ha (have) | ha- | hade | haft | har haft | hade haft |
| äta (eat) | ät- | åt | ätit | har ätit | hade ätit |
Rememer:
This tense is used to express something which has already happened and that has an influence on the present.
Exercises
Swedish past tense exercise
Conjugate the verbs into their past tense
Possible endings:
- -ade
- -de
- - te
- - dde
Good luck !
Prata =
träna =
ringa =
glömma =
läsa =
köpa =
bo =
tro =
komma =
skriva =
Swedish past tense exercise and quiz
Solution
We use the past tense to express ______________.
Event that have happened
The Swedish past tense consists of ____________.
The Swedish past tense consists of ____________.
Which two tenses express the past in Swedish?
Past simple and present perfect
In order to create the imperfect tense you add ___ to the stem.
de
'de' cannot be added if the stem ends with a __________.
voiceless consonant
If the stem ends with a voiceless consonant you attach ___.
'te'
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My teaching methods include a lot of input through listening, texts, followed by guided practice based on the material. Grammar is taught in a complimentary way, but the main focus is input and communication. I follow CEFR topic order so that students can see how their knowledge scaffolds along.
The materials are picked from the internet depending on the student's needs and interests, be they work, travel, study, or just for fun. I like to include videos about different topics like culture, business, life hacks, news, interesting facts, science, love and relationships, among others, with intermediate/advanced students, and communicational dialogues with beginner students.
Book a trial lesson and see how you feel!
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This review was written by a coLanguage team member during a manual screening of this teacher profile.
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For more than 15 years I have been working as a language teacher in Istanbul, Berlin and Hamburg.
After studying Spanish Linguistics at the University of Ankara, I trained as a language teacher for Turkish and Spanish at the DILMER language school in Istanbul.
My methodology focuses on the language skills of the students.
Grammar is trained through direct application and thus stays in the memory.
History, culture and literature offer us a lot to talk about and soon you will become confident in using the language.
Learning a language means learning to speak!
E. K.
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Hello,
my name is Domagoj, I am from Croatia but live in Sweden 10 years of my life. I live in a small town in the north of Sweden. I love Swedish language and can speak it on the level of native speaker. I have an experience of teaching Swedish and Croatian and I am ready to share my knowledge to anyone who has a wish to learn it. It doesn't matter what level or learning background you have, I have all necessary materials to teach you.
I like to travel and I am open for new cultures and people. In my leisure time I like to swim, go to the mountains and drink tasty coffee.
Subscribe for lessons with me, we will discuss all your wishes and needs and how we can achieve your targets.
Z. .
Great lesson, Domagoj has a lot of experience and patience and gives lectures in a very simple way, excellent level of communication, I am very satisfied
Domagoj P.
Hi! I have a degree in teaching Swedish as a second language and have been working as a teacher of Swedish for over 8 years in Sweden. I can help you at any level of proficiency.
I can teach in Swedish, English or Russian. Depending on your needs and goals we can plan your course individually so that you can learn effectively.
M. S.
I am very happy with Julia, her lessons are at the same time flexible to accommodate my learning needs and focused on topics that may be of interest and stimulate me. Julia has remarkable knowledge and experience in teaching methods, she helps finding material both from manuals and news, social media and other dynamic sources. I can surely well recommend her!
Julia K.