Present Tense of Swedish Verbs

Swedish Subject Pronouns

The following table shows the subject form of Swedish pronouns.

Swedish	English
jag (Note: The final g is often not pronounced.)	I
du	you (refering to a single person)
han	he
hon	she
vi	we
ni	you (when refering to more than one person)
de (usually pronounced dom)	they

Present Tense of Swedish Verbs

Verbs are words that describe an action, state of being, or occurrence. Verbs have different tenses that indicate when the action happens. In this lesson, you'll learn about the present tense of Swedish verbs.

The present tense of a verb is used to talk about actions that are currently happening as well as habitual actions. The present tense of most verbs is formed by adding r to the end of the infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive is the form of a verb shown in dictionaries. For some verbs the ending a of the infinitive is replaced by er. There a few irregular verbs in the present tense as well. Examples of the present tense are given below.

To make a negative statement add inte after the verb.

To make a question, put the subject of the sentence after the verb.

kalla

Kalla, which means to call, is an example of a verb that forms its present tense by adding r to the infinitive.

Swedish	English
jag kallar	I call
du kallar	you call (referring to one person)
han kallar	he calls
hon kallar	she calls
vi kallar	we call
ni kallar	you call (referring to more than one person)
de kallar	they call

stänga

stänga, which means to close, is an example of a verb that forms its present tense by adding er to the stem of the verb.

Swedish	English
jag stänger	I close
du stänger	you close (referring to one person)
han stänger	he close
hon stänger	she close
vi stänger	we close
ni stänger	you close (referring to more than one person)
de stänger	they close

Common Verbs

The present tense of some common Swedish verbs is shown below. Note the irregular present tense for the verbs vara, veta, vilja, and kunna.

Infinitve	Present Tense	English
gå	går	go
ge	ger	give
komma	kommer	come
kunna	kan	be able, can
spela	spelar	play
ta	tar	take
tala	talar	speak
veta	vet	know
vara	är	be
vilja	vill	want

Examples

Here are some example sentence using the present tense.

Jag kan inte tro det!	I can't believe it!
Jag vet inte.	I don't know.
Det är viktigt.	It's important.
Vad betyder det?	What does that mean?
Elias lyssnar på musik.	Elias listens to music.