Posts tagged w/ irregular verbs

More Past Participle Goodness - Irregular (a.k.a. strong) Verbs

Posted by Anna Ikeda
May
28
2009

So let’s finish those past participles today and get on with more pleasant things in our lives, shall we?

I promised you we’d save the best for last and talk about past participles of irregular verbs in this blog post. Irregular? Sounds scary? No worries, it’s not!
Actually, it’s very easy.

You see, if you know what the Swedish supine is and you memorized them for those pesky irregular (also known as “strong”) verbs, forming past participles is so straightforward, it’s almost suspicious.

You don’t believe me? Just wait and you’ll see.

But let’s backtrack for a sec to make sure we remember what this mysterious Swedish supine is. Though by now it shouldn’t be mysterious at all.

Swedish supine is different from what we call “supine” in English. In Swedish this is the verb form that is used in perfect tenses. In other words, it’s the bit that follows har (present perfect) or hade (past perfect) in normal sentences.

So, here are some very handsome irregular Swedish supines:

  • bjudit - from “bjuda” (to invite)
  • försvunnit - from “försvunna” (to disappear)
  • bundit – from “binda” (to bind, to tie)
  • skurit – from “skära” (to cut, to carve)

OK, so now we have those supines. Now see how easy it is to make their past participles. And you do it like this: you grab that supine, chop off that “it” ending and then add “en” instead.

  • bjudit → bjud + en → bjuden – invited
  • försvunnit → försvunn + en → försvunnen – disappeared
  • bundit → bund + en → bunden – bound (tied)
  • skurit → skur + en → skuren – cut, carved

So, even though the initial verb might be “irregular” the way we create those past participles is very regular indeed.

PS. Just a reminder - it’s Mother’s Day (Mors dag) this Sunday in Sweden. Don’t forget about your moms, or moms-in-law! :)

 
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Swedish Supines and Past Participles and More Grammar

Posted by Anna Ikeda
May
22
2009

You know how I always tell you that Swedish is so similar to English that learning it should be a cake-walk really?

Well, today, I will break with this long-standing tradition and instead I’m going to tell you that Swedish is not like English at all and that it can be quite hard to get it right.

I’ve never even thought about this issue, because well, frankly, it’s never even crossed my mind. Until I had to help someone deal with supines and past participles. And the trouble began.

“Wait!” I hear you say, “isn’t it, like, pretty much basic and easy in English?”
Yes it is. But it’s not so easy in Swedish. Especially for an English speaker (hence I kindly ask all native Swedes reading this blog post to please consider this fact while commenting, thank you).

You see, the English supine is the bare naked infinitive form, the kind we stick “to” in front of.
But in Swedish, the supine is the stuff we use to construct perfect tenses - as in “jag har/hade + Swedish supine.

So, it looks like the Swedish supine is what in English we’d call a past participle.

So, what’s a past participle in Swedish? Hmmm… It’s also a verb form, but it’s used as an adjective. And it also follows the same rules as all normal adjectives do.

So, let’s take a look at this:

  • skriva – to write

and in all the tenses:

  • skriver – write (present tense)
  • skrev – wrote (past tense)
  • skrivit – written (used in perfect tenses – this “skrivit” is the Swedish supine)

and

  • skriven – “written” as an adjective – this is the Swedish past participle, this form is used with “en” nouns
  • skrivet – “written” as an adjective – this form is used with “ett” nouns

and

  • skrivna – “written” as an adjective – this form is used with plural nouns.

“Ouch!” I hear you say and I don’t blame you. Maybe these very simple examples will make it clearer:

  • Någon har skrivit ett brev. – Someone has written a letter. - That’s our garden variety present perfect tense. Nothing complicated here. “Skrivit” is the Swedish supine.
  • Detta brev var skrivet på engelska. – This letter was written in English. - “Brev” is an “ett” noun and the past participle form we need to use here is “skrivet”.
  • Denna text var skriven i december 2008. – This text was written in December 2008. - “Text” is an “en” noun and the past participle form that matches it is “skriven”.
  • Alla gamla böcker var skrivna på latin. – All old books were written in Latin. - “Böcker” is a plural noun, and so we need to use the plural form of past participle, which in this case is “skrivna”.

Of course I made it difficult for you by choosing an irregular verb for these examples, so next time I’ll show you how this Swedish past participle stuff works with normal, boring, regular verbs, OK?

 
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