General

Verbs have the syntactic function of being heads of verb phrases. Semantically, they denote various types of actions, like events (give, throw, injure, disappear, put), processes (go, fall, swim, float) or states (sit, own, be). Usually the verb describes what a referent, often the subject, is doing: John gave her a book, Anne opened the door, we were sleeping. Besides the subject, an action may involve several other actants: there are three actants in John gave Mary a book, two in John kissed Mary, and one in John ran away. Certain verbs do not have any actant, like rain in It rained the whole day. The verb determines the semantic role of the actant(s); thus the subject is an Agent in John killed Mary, where the object is a Patient. The subject is an Experiencer in John likes Mary, and the object is a Patient also in this case. The subject is a Patient in John has blue eyes.

The verb inflects for various kinds of categories: finiteness, mood, tense, aspect and voice (active/medium/passive); in addition the tensed verb agrees in person and number with the subject. Finiteness involves the distinction finitevs.non-finite: sings/sang vs. (to) sing, singing, sung. A finite verb (identical to the tensed form in Germanic) anchors the action denoted by the verb to the point of view of the speaker at the moment of speech. Tense involves the distinction beween present and past tense: John likes Mary, John liked Mary; the main function of tense is to introduce a time line. Mood involves the distinction indicative vs. conjunctive: consider the alternation ist/wäre ‘is.IND/is.CONJ in the German examples es ist möglich ‘it is possible’ vs. es wäre möglich ‘it were possible’, where the use of the conjuctive form in the second example indicates that something is not possible in the world as it is. Aspect involves the distinction perfective vs.imperfective; of the Germanic languages it is only English that has grammaticalized the aspectual distinction inflectionally, as in he sang vs. he was singing. Voice involves the distinction active vs. passive, expressed with auxiliaries in the passive case in the English example John threw the ball vs. the ball was thrown, but in the Scandinavian languages alternatively expressed by a particular ending on the verb: cf. Swedish Johan kastade bollen ‘Johan threw the ball’ vs. Bollen kastades ‘ball.the threw.PASS’. Finally, agreement with the subject is found in all Germanic languages except Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although this kind of agreement is rudimentary in English: I am, you are, he is; he runs, they run. In many languages the verb also agrees with the object; for the Germanic languages this is found only in Icelandic, and only with nominative objects.

Swedish

The Swedish verb is inflected for finiteness/tense and voice: han kastar bollen ‘he throw ball.the’, han kastade bollen ‘he threw ball.the’, bollen kastas ‘ball throw.PASS’, bollen kastades ‘ball threw.PASS’. There are some frozen conjunctive forms, but the verb is not regularily inflected for mood. The tensed verb does not agree with the subject in Swedish: jag, du, han, hon, vi, ni, de sjunger/sjöng ‘I, you, he, she, we, you, they sing/sang’. The stem of the verb is used to express the imperative form of the verb: sjung! ‘sing!’, kasta! ‘throw!’ In addition to the finite forms, there are various non-finite forms of the verb: infinitive sjunga ‘(to) sing’, kasta ‘(to) throw’, supine sjungit ‘(had) sung’, kastat ‘(had) thrown’, present participle sjungande ‘singing’, kastande ‘throwing’, and past participle sjungen ‘(is) sung’, kastad ‘(is) thrown’.
 
 

3.4.1. Form

Swedish verbs are built in the following ways; each verb is presented in its imperative form, which is identical to the stem:

a) as root morpheme like kom ‘come’, läs ‘read’, tro ‘believe’, bind ‘bind’, se ‘see’,

b) as root morpheme with an added suffix -a (1^st conjugation): kasta ‘throw’, rita ‘draw’, måla ‘paint’, sparka ‘kick’, öka ‘increase’; visa ‘show’, tvätta ‘wash’.

c) as suffixal derivation like smal-na ‘narrow’, registr-era ‘register, record’, katalog-isera ‘catalogue’,

e) as prefixal derivation like be-spruta ‘sprinkle’, för-låt ‘forgive’.

f) as compounds; compounding is a very productive way to form new words in Swedish. This holds for verbs as well as for other word classes. A compounded verb has a verb as its final part: kryp-kör ‘crawl-drive, drive slowly’, smak-sätt ‘flavour’, av-bryt ‘interrupt’, behovs-pröva ‘means test’, eld-härja ‘fire-ravage’.

3.4.1.1. Compounding with particles

Compounds like avbryta ‘interrupt’, uthärda ‘endure’, nedlägga ‘lay down’, correspond to the construction verb + particle, as in bryta av, härda ut, lägga ner. To distinguish the two possibilities, the terms integrated and separated forms are used. Sometimes the integrated and separated forms have different meanings, compare English overtake ? take over, but sometimes they are more or less synonymous.

Separated and integrated forms: semantic difference

In Swedish the separate form of verb and particle usually has a concrete meaning, whereas the corresponding integrated form has a figurative meaning: Han bröt av en kvist ‘he broke a twig, Han avbröt talaren ‘he interrupted speaker.the’. This is further illustrated in the following table:
 
 

Separated form, literal meaning	Integrated form, figurative meaning
Han skrev till ett ord.  he wrote to a word  He added a word.	Han tillskrev henne segern.  he to-wrote her victory.the  He credited her with the victory.
Han skrev av brevet.  he wrote off letter.the  He copied the letter.	Han avskrev ärendet.  he off-wrote matter.the  He removed the matter from the cause-list.
Benet gick av.  leg.the went off.  The leg broke off.	Statsministern avgick.  prime-minister off-went  The Prime Minister resigned.
Lampan lyste upp rummet.  lamp.the lighted up room.the  The lamp illuminated the room.	Vi upplyste henne om hennes misstag. we up-lighted her about her mistake  We enlightened her regarding her mistake.

Separated and integrated forms: stylistic difference

Sometimes there is only a stylistic difference between the separated and the integrated forms of verb and particle: the separated forms are used in spoken and ordinary written language, whereas the integrated forms are reserved for more formal usage.
 
 

Separated form, everyday style	Integrated form, formal style
Vi steg ner i källaren. we stepped down in basement.the  We went down into the basement	Kristus nedsteg till dödsriket. Christ has down-stepped to Hell  Christ has descended into Hell.
Tjuven tog från honom pengarna.  thief.the took from him money.the  The thief took his money.	Polisen fråntog honom körkortet.  police.the from-took him driver-license.the  The police deprived him of his driver-license.

The distinction, if there is one, between the integrated and the separated forms, is not present for the participial forms. The contrast with the supine is especially illuminating:

(1) Han hade brutit av grenen. *Han hade avbrutit grenen. Grenen var avbruten /^?*bruten av.

he had broken off twig.the he had off-broken twig.the twig.the was off-broken/broken off

3.4.2. Transitive and intransitive verbs

Depending on the action referred to by the verb, a certain number of actants must also be expressed. When the action denoted by an active verb is caused by somebody, a noun phrase referring to that person (the Agent) must be used as the subject of the clause: Johan kysste Maria ‘Johan kissed Maria’, Kvinnan körde fort ‘women.the drove fast’. Other actants may be obligatorily or optionally expressed, either by means of noun phrases (direct and indirect object) or by means of prepositional phrases (prepositional object). In addition the action may be modified by bound and free adverbials.

(1) a. Johan kysste Maria. (direct object)

Johan kissed Maria

b. Johan gav Maria en kyss. (indirect object and direct object)

Johan gave Maria a kiss

c. Johan gav en bok till Maria. (direct object, prepositional object)

Johan gave a book to Maria

d. Johan såg på Maria. (prepositional object)

Johan looked at Maria

e. Johan bor i Lund. (bound adverbial)

Johan lives in Lund

f. Johan sprang i Skrylle. (free adverbial)

Johan ran in Skrylle

More free adverbials may be added to each of the examples, depending on how detailed the speaker wants to be.

When there is a direct object in connection with a verb, the verb is classified as transitive; the term indicates a transition of some kind from the subject to the object, via the verb: Han köpte huset ‘he bought house.the’, han kastade bollen ‘he threw ball.the’, han läste boken ‘he read book.the’. Intransitive verbs do not have direct objects: Han sov ‘he slept’, hon körde fort ‘she drove fast’. Occasionally, however, an intransitive verb may be expanded with a cognate object: Han dansade tango‘he danced tango’, Han ringde ett samtal ‘he called a call’. The passive variant of a transitive verb is an intransitive verb, taking the object of the corresponding transitive verb as its subject: Maria blev kysst ‘Maria was kissed’, Bollen kastades ‘ball.the threw.PASS’.

Certain verbs are ditransitive, having both a direct and an indirect object (see 1b above). Among the 500 most frequent words in Swedish, the following ditransitive verbs are found (Allén 1970); note that some of the verbs are ditransitive only in frozen expressions, and for some of the others there are strong restrictions on what the direct object may refer to. The verbs indicated by # are the only ones where both the direct and the indirect object seem to be more or less obligatory (except in absolute constructions).

(3) a. Anna gav henne boken. Anna gav boken till henne.

Anna gave her book.the Anna gave book.the to her

b. Eva betalade henne pengarna. Eva betalade pengarna till henne.

Eva paid her money.the Eva paid money.the to her

c. Jag fann henne en ny cykel. Jag fann en ny cykel åt henne.

I found her a new bike I found a new bike for her

There is often an intransitive verb corresponding to the transitive one in form and meaning. In many cases the transitive verb is weak (first or second conjunction), whereas the intransitive verb is strong (fourth conjunction):

(6) Han tvättade/rakade/gömde flyktingen. Han tvättade/rakade/gömde sig.

Swedish has temporal auxiliaries, passive auxiliaries and copular auxiliaries, in addition to modal auxiliaries. There is no (grammaticalized) aspectual auxiliary. An auxiliary must usually occur together with a non-finite main verb or non finite auxiliary. Most auxiliaries take a complement in the infinitive; to this group belong all the modal auxiliaries, as well as the temporal auxiliaries kommer att ‘come.PRES to’ and ska ‘shall’, both indicating future:

(1) a. Han måste sparka bollen. Hon borde sova. Maria kan försöka igen. Hon får göra det.

she must kick ball.the she ought-to sleep Maria can try again she may do it

b. Hon kommer att klara det. Han ska resa till Rom.

she come.PRES to manage it he shall go to Rome

She will manage it. He will go to Rome.

The temporal auxiliary ha is used together with a particular non-finite form of the verb, called the supine, to form the perfect and pluperfect tenses. Unlike the past participle, to which the supine is closely related, it does not agree with the subject.

(2) a. Han har redan kommit. Han har köpt en ny bil.

he has already arrived he has bought a new car

b. Han hade arbetat hårt. Han hade målat huset.

he had worked hard he had painted the house

c. Han lär ha avlidit plötsligt. Han måste ha hört tjuven.

he is-said-to have died suddenly he must have heard thief.the

The passive auxiliaries in Swedish are bli ‘become’ and vara ‘be’, which are followed by a past participle that agrees with the subject. The form with bli is used to express a transition from one state to another, whereas the form with vara stresses the result of an action or a completed transition.

(3) a. Han blev påkörd av en bil igår. b. Han är plågad av mygg.

he was hit by a car yesterday he is tormented by mosquitoes

Furthermore, Swedish has two copular auxiliaries, vara ‘be’ and bli ‘become’. Vara is used when referring to a state, bli when referring to a change. They differ from all other auxiliaries in not demanding a verb in its complement. If the complement is based on a verb, this verb is a participle, either present participle as in (4a), or a past participle, as in (4b). The examples in (4c,d) show cases where the copular auxiliary takes something else than a verb as its complement.

(4) a. Han blev sittande framför henne.

he became sitting in-front-of her

He remained sitting in front of her.

b. Hon var försvunnen.

she was disappeared

The most common Swedish modal auxiliaries with their inflection are listed below:
 

Infinitive	Present	Past	Supine	Meaning
skola	ska (skall)	skulle	(skolat)	shall, will
kunna	kan	kunde	kunnat	be able
vilja	vill	ville	velat	will, want to
?	måste	måste	?	must, have to
böra	bör	borde	bort	should, ought to
?	tör	torde	?	is probably
?	må	måtte	?	may, must
?	lär	?	?	is said to
låta	låter	lät	låtit	let
få	får	fick	fått	may, be allowed to, must, have to

 

3.4.4. Tense

General

The grammatical category tense has to do with time-relations expressed by systematic grammatical contrasts. In the Germanic languages, the expressions for tense are either an inflectional ending on the verb (John opened the door) or a tense auxiliary in combination with a particular non-tensed (non-finite) verb form (John will open the door); a small group of verbs (strong verbs) do not use endings but express tense with differnt forms of the verb (we sing every day, we sang every day; he is happy, he was happy).

All Germanic languages express a cotrast between ‘present’ (he is here), ‘past’ (he was here), and ‘future’ (he will be here), usually also the ‘perfect/pluperfect’ meaning is expressed (he has been here, he had been here).

Swedish

Present tense

The present tense ends in -r: han öppnar dörren, vi sjunger varje dag.

Past tense

Like the other Germanic languages, Swedish forms the past tense with a dental suffix (weak conjugation) or a change in the stem vowel (strong conjugation): han öppnade dörren ‘he opened door.the’, vi sjöng varje dag ‘we sang every day’.

Future tense

Swedish has three main ways to express the future:

a. with the present tense form (mainly verbs referring to a change of state): han öppnar dörren om en timme ‘he opens door.the within an hour’ (= he will open ...)

b. with the auxiliary kommer + att + infinitive, han kommer att öppna dörren om en timme ‘he comes to open door.the ... (= he will open...) or

c. with the modal skall + infinitive, han ska öppna dörren om en timme ‘he shall open door.the ... (= he will open ...).

Perfect/pluperfect

The perfect/pluperfect auxiliary is always ha ‘have’, followed by a specific uninflected verb form called the supine, which always ends in -t: han har öppnat dörren ‘he has opened door.the’, vi hade sjungit ‘we had sung’.

3.4.5. The conjugations

The many different patterns of inflection and stem variation in Swedish verbs can be reduced and simplified to four main groups, the four conjugations: three weak (past tense with a dental suffix) and one strong (past tense with stem variation). In the presentations below the forms given are imperative, present tense, past tense, supine and past participle (in common gender singular).

(1) a. First conjugation: sparka ? sparkar ? sparkade ? sparkat ? sparkad ‘kick’

b. Second conjugation: köp ? köper ? köpte ? köpt ? köpt ‘buy’

c. Third conjugation: sy ? syr ? sydde ? sytt ? sydd ‘sew’

d. Fourth conjugation: finn? finner? fann ? funnit ? funnen ‘find’

3.4.5.1. First conjugation

Approximately 50% of the frequent Swedish verbs, and 80% of all Swedish verbs, belong to the first conjugation, which is the only truly productive conjugation in Swedish. Its stem always ends in -a, its present tense ending in -r, its past tense ending in -de, its supine in -t and its past participle in -d. The infinitive is identical to the stem. In spoken Swedish, all endings except the one in past participle, tend to be omitted. Hence when an utterance contains the verb sparka ‘kick’ it may be either imperative, sparka henne ‘kick her!’, present tense or past tense: han sparka’ henne ‘he kicks/ kicked her’, supine, han hade sparka’ henne ‘he had kicked her’ or infinitive, han råkade sparka henne ‘he happened to kick her’.

The most common verbs (among the 500 most common words) of the first conjugation, according to Allén (1972), are:

The second conjugation contains verbs with stems ending in consonants; the stem is visible in the imperative form: köp! ‘buy’, ställ ‘put’. The infinitive is formed of the stem + -a. When the stem ends in a voiceless consonant, the past tense suffix is -te, when it ends in a voiced consonent, the past tense suffix is -de: köp-te ‘bought’ but ställ-de ‘put’. Verbs of the second conjugation have the ending -er in the present tense, köper, ställer, except when the stem ends in -r, in which case the present form is identical to the stem: kör!, han kör ‘drive!, he drives’. Verbs with a stem in consonant + -d drop this consonant in the past tense, in the supine and in the past participle: vänd ? vände ? vänt ? vänd ‘turn’. Some verbs in this conjugation has an umlaut-vowel in imperative, infinitive and present tense, but the corresponding non-umlaut vowel in past tense, supine and the past participle:

(3) a. välj ? väljer ? valde ? valt ? vald ‘chose’

b. smörj ? smörjer ? smorde ? smort ? smord ‘grease’

c. gör ? gör ? gjorde ? gjort ? gjord ‘do, make’

Some verbs conform broadly to the inflexion of the second conjugation, but possess one or more irregular forms:

(4) gläd ? gläder ? gladde ? glatt ? no past participle ‘give ... pleasure, please’

(ha) ? har ? hade ? haft (no past participle ‘have’

måste ? måste ? måst ‘must’

säg ? säger ? sa(de) ? sagt ? sagd ‘say’

(vet) ? vet ? visste ? vetat ‘know’

The most common verbs (among the 500 most common words) of the second conjugation, according to Allén (1972), are:

The third conjugation contains verbs with stems ending in a stressed vowel other than a. As in the first conjugation, the infinitive is identical to the stem. Some examples with different vowels are given in (6):

(6) ske ? sker ? skedde ? skett ? skedd ‘occur, happen’

bo ? bo ? bodde ? bott ? bodd ‘live’

fly ? flyr ? flydde ? flytt ? flydd ‘flee’

nå ? når ? nådde ? nått ? nådd ‘reach’

strö ? strör ? strödde ? strött ? strödd ‘sprinkle’

As in the second conjugation, there are some irregular verbs of the third conjugation; a handful of these are listed in (7); irregular forms are marked with ^#:

(7) (dö) ? dör ? ^#dog ? dött ? no past participle (the adjective död ‘dead’ is used) ‘die’

(få) ? får ? ^#fick ? fått ? no past participle ‘get’

ge ? ger ? ^#gav ? gett/ ^#givit ? ^#given ‘give’

gå ? går ? ^#gick ? gått ? no past participle (-^#gången in compounds) ‘walk, go’

se ? ser ? ^#såg ? sett ? sedd ‘se’

stå ? står ? ^#stod ? stått ? no past participle (-stådd in compounds) ‘stand’

The most common verbs (among the 500 most common words) of the third conjugation, according to Allén (1972), are:

The fourth conjugation contains strong verbs with stems ending in consonants; typical for the verbs of this class is that past tense is not formed by adding a dental suffix, but (usually) by changing the stem vowel (ablaut); another characteristics is that the supine always ends in -it and the past participle in -en in common gender singular, -et in neuter singular, and -na in plural:

(9) bit ? biter? bet ? bitit ? biten ‘bite’

flyg ? flyger ? flög ? flugit ? flugen ‘fly’

finn ? finner? fann ? funnit ? funnen ‘find’

ta ? tar ? tog ? tagit ? tagen ‘take’

The infinitive is formed by adding -a to the stem flyg!, flyga ‘fly! (to) fly’.

Strong verbs are divided into groups depending on the vowel alternation series. Thus, in (9) are illustrated the series i ? e ? i, y ? ö ? u, i ? a ? u and a ? o ? a. The most common series together with some example of each are given in (10) (top of next page); all the strong verbs among the top 500 in Allén (1972) are included in this list, except some compounded ones.