Back
Intermediate

Past Tense

Weak (regular) and strong (irregular) verbs

Weak Group 1: add -ade to the stem

The most regular past tense — stem + -ade.

📊 Past tense patterns
Group Infinitive Past Supine
1 -a verbs -ade -at (talade/talat)
2a short e-stem -de -t (köpte/köpt)
2b consonant cluster -de -t (levde/levt)
2c voiceless ending -te -t (läste/läst)
3 short verbs -dde -tt (bodde/bott)
4 (strong) varies vowel change varies (skriva→skrev→skrivit)
💬 Examples
tala → talade / jobba → jobbade
speak → spoke / work → worked
📝 stem + -ade
Jag talade svenska igår.
I spoke Swedish yesterday.
📝 talade = past of tala
Weak Group 2: add -de or -te depending on the stem

Short stems or those ending in a voiceless consonant take -te; others take -de.

💬 Examples
köpa → köpte / stänga → stängde
buy → bought / close → closed
📝 voiceless stem → -te; voiced → -de
läsa → läste / leva → levde
read → read / live → lived
📝 läsa: voiceless s → -te
Strong verbs change the stem vowel

Like German or English strong verbs — an internal vowel shifts.

💬 Examples
skriva → skrev / ta → tog
write → wrote / take → took
📝 strong: vowel change, no suffix
äta → åt / ge → gav
eat → ate / give → gave
📝 strong past forms must be memorised