Posted by Anna Ikeda
Luke from Sydney had a question about verbs. He wanted to know if all Swedish verbs end in “a” – that is something I briefly touched upon in the Swedish verbs part 2 post a while back.
So let’s review:
No, not all Swedish verbs end in “a.” Some end in other vowels. And some end in “s.” But it does indeed seem like almost all Swedish verbs have the “a” ending, simply because the great majority of them ends in “a.”
So, what are the verbs that end in other vowels? Those are those short, irregular verbs that I mentioned in the post referenced above.
Some of those verbs end in “e” – for example:
- se – to see
- ge – to give
- be – to beg/request
- le – to smile
A few end in “å” – for example:
- gå – to go
- må – to feel (when talking about health)
- stå – to stand
- få – to get/receive
- slå – to hit/ to strike
And a few end in other vowels:
- sy – to sew
- bo – to live/reside
- dö – to die
- tro – to believe/ to think
- bli – to become
- klä – to dress
- fly – to flee
But then there are also other verbs that don’t end in a vowel. Instead, they end in “s.”
These are funky little verbs that normally bring quite a lot of grief to Swedish learners. Why? Some verbs get “s” at the end to express a passive voice. But some have that “s” ending and are not passive in meaning. Such verbs that are passive in form, but active in meaning are called deponent verbs, and unfortunately Swedish is full of them.
Below are some of the most common ones:
- hoppas – to hope
- minnas – to remember, recall
- andas – to breathe
- finnas – to be (exist) – probably the most common of the bunch, You will see it in plenty of expressions, such as for example: Det finns + noun – There is + noun.
- trivas – to feel at home, to get along
And there are many more.
So as you can see, not all Swedish verbs end in “a” even though it may seem so at first.
Posted by Anna Ikeda
A few posts back we started to discuss Swedish verbs, remember? And I told you that those verbs can be divided into two big groups: “ar” and “er”. I also mentioned that there is a third group and then promptly refused to say anything else about it.
Oh yes, that third verb group. This is the group that brings tears of definitely not joy to the eyes of Swedish learners. Why? Several reasons.
While most (almost all other) verbs have infinitive forms that end in –a, those short little guys end in whatever they like. At least it looks like that to an untrained eye. And those guys are really short. Like one syllable short. That’s the good news. The other good news is that there aren’t all that many of them. The bad news is that they’re all irregular, and sadly, you have no other choice but to memorize them all, especially since quite a few of them are very common. Like this one, for example:
“ge” is the infinitive form, and in the present tense this verb tries to masquerade as an “er” verb, clever little sod:
- Jag ger dig pengar. = I give you money (I’m giving you money)
See what I mean? “Ge” becomes “ger” in the present tense.
Other verbs that behave as “ge” are:
- le/ler = (to) smile
- be/ber = (to) beg, request
- se/ser = (to) see
Here are some other short verbs that are neither “ar” nor “er”:
- stå = to stand
Hon står och väntar. = She’s standing and waiting.
- dö = to die
Gräset dör i torkan. = The grass dies during drought.
- bo = to live (somewhere)
Jag bor i Sverige. = I live in Sweden.
- få = to get, to receive
Hon får pengar idag. = She gets money today.
- tro = to believe, to think
Ja, jag tror det. = Yes, I think so (reckon).
- gå = to go
Hur går det för dig? = How’s it going for you?
- må = to feel (of health)
Jag mår inte riktig bra. = I’m not feeling quite well.
Can you spot a pattern? While these are neither “ar” nor “er” verbs, turning them into their present tense forms is quite easy – just stick an “r” onto their short, little bodies. That’s the easy part. Unfortunately, that’s also the end of easy, because when it comes to their past and perfect forms, those irregular suckers you will need to memorize one by one. Let me know if you need any help!
