General
The grammatical category mood has to do with the attitude of the speaker towards what he is saying. A plain declarative is strictly speaking unmarked for mood (indicative), but the verb may also be marked to express the speaker’s commitment with respect to the factual status of what he is saying, his uncertainty or doubt, his desire, obligations etc. A specific type of mood, called the imperative, is used to express commands. Some languages also mark the verb to express that an event is subordinated. Some Germanic languages express mood both with certain inflection on the verb and with the help of auxiliaries, whereas other only use auxiliaries.
Swedish
The Swedish verb is not inflected for mood. The imperative mood is expressed with the stem of the verb. The other non-indicative meanings might be expressed with the past tense form, or with the help of auxiliaries.
____________________________________________________________________________
Swedish strong verbs ? the most common types
| (10) | Imperative | Present | Past | Supine | Past ptc | Meaning |
| i-e-i | bit
bli driv rid skriv stig |
biter
blir driver rider skriver stiger |
bet
blev drev red skrev steg |
bitit
blivit drivit ridit skrivit stigit |
biten
bliven driven riden skriven stigen |
‘bite’
‘become’ ‘drive, drift’ ‘ride’ ‘write’ ‘step’ |
| y/ju-ö-u | bryt
frys ljug sjung |
bryter
fryser ljuger sjunger |
bröt
frös ljög sjöng |
brutit
frusit ljugit sjungit |
bruten
frusen ljugen sjungen |
‘break’
‘freeze’ ‘tell a lie’ ‘sing’ |
| i-a-u | bind
drick finn hinn sitt spring |
binder
dricker finner hinner sitter springer |
band
drack fann hann satt sprang |
bundit
druckit funnit hunnit suttit sprungit |
bunden
funnen hunnen sutten sprungen |
‘bind’
‘drink’ ‘find’ ‘have time’ ‘sit’ ‘run’ |
| a-o-a | dra
far ta/taga |
drar
far tar/tager |
drog
for tog |
dragit
farit tagit |
dragen
faren tagen |
‘pull’
‘travel’ ‘take’ |
| ä-a-u | bär
skär |
bär
skär |
bar
skar |
burit
skurit |
buren
skuren |
‘carry’
‘cut’ |
| a-ö-a | fall
håll |
faller
håller |
föll
höll |
fallit
hållit |
fallen
hållen |
‘fall’
‘hold’ |
| i-å-e | ligg | ligger | låg | #legat | #legad | ‘lie’ |
| o-o-o
a-a-a |
kom
sov var |
kommer
sover #är |
kom
sov var |
kommit
sovit varit |
kommen
æ æ |
‘come
‘sleep’ ‘be’ |
| å-ä-å | gråt
låt |
gråter
låter |
grät
lät |
gråtit
låtit |
gråten
låten |
‘weep’
‘allow’ |
| ä-å-ä | ät | äter | åt | ätit | äten | ‘eat’ |
____________________________________________________________________________
The imperative
The imperative is the stem, i.e. it ends in -a like the infinitive in first conjunction (Öppna! ‘Open!’), on a stressed vowel in third conjunction and some irregular verbs (Fly! ‘run away!’, Gå! ‘go’), otherwise in a consonant (Hjälp mig! ‘help me’, Kom! ‘come’). See 1.9.3, ex. (4).
Other non-indicative meanings
a. Past tense: Om jag var rik skulle jag hjälpa dig. ‘if I was (=were) rich should I help you’
b. Modal auxiliary verb together with the main verb in the infinitive:
Om jag hade varit rik skulle jag ha hjälpt dig ‘if I had been rich should I have helped you’, Jag skulle vilja be dig om en tjänst ‘I would like to ask you a favour, Han kan ge mig pengarna ‘he can give me money.the’ Du får gå nu ‘you have to go now’.
The Swedish verb has four non-finite forms: the infinitive, the supine, the present participle and the past participle.
Infinitive. The infinitive is formed by the stem, with an additional -a in case the stem ends in a consonant: köp-a ‘buy’, spring-a ‘run’, kasta ‘throw’, öppna ‘open’, se ‘see’, gå ‘go, walk’.
Supine. The supine is formed in the following ways:
b. Verbs ending in stressed vowel: -tt is added. gå-tt ‘(have) gone’, se-tt ‘(have) seen’.
c. Weak verbs ending in consonant or unstressed -a: -t is added. kasta-t ‘(have) thrown’, köp-t ‘(have) bought’, ställ-t ‘(have) placed’.
d. Irregular form on -at: kunn-at ‘(have) known’, het-at ‘(have) been called’, vel-at ‘(have) wanted’.
Present participle. The present participle is formed by adding -(a)nde to the stem of the verb; in case the stem ends in a stressed vowel, the ending is -ende. kast-ande ‘throwing’, köp-ande ‘buying’, lek-ande ‘playing’, komm-ande ‘coming’, bind-ande ‘binding’; gå-ende ‘going, walking’, tro-ende ‘believing’.
Past participle. The past participle is formed in the following ways (compare the Supine):
a. Strong verbs: -en is added to the past participial stem: komm-en ‘(is) come’, sprung-en ‘(is) run’, krup-en ‘(is) crawled’, fall-en ‘(is) fallen’, bit-en ‘(is) bitten’, håll-en ‘(is) held’, ät-en ‘(is) eaten’.
b. Verbs ending in stressed vowel: -dd is added. gå-dd ‘(is) gone’, se-dd ‘(is) seen’.
c. Weak verbs ending in consonant or unstressed -a: -t or -d is added (-t when the stem ends in a voiceless consonant). kasta-d ‘(is) thrown’, köp-t ‘(is) bought’, ställ-d ‘(is) placed’.
Verbs corresponding to the d-group under the heading Supine above do not have a past participle form.
| Common gender singular | en skriven bok
a written book |
| Neuter gender singular | ett skrivet brev
a written letter |
| Plural | skrivna brev
written letters |
General
In a majority of the languages of the world, the tensed verb has different
forms depending on the choice of subject; in some languages, the verb also
has different forms for different objects. English has a simple rest of
this system, inflecting the present tense verb with -s when the subject
is 3rd person singular: John loves his father.
The
boys love their father. More typical is the Icelandic situation, where
the verb inflects for all persons and numbers, with different endings in
different tenses and moods. Consider the following paradigm for tala
'speak':
| Person | Present indicative | Present subjunctive | Past indicative | Past subjunctive |
| ég 'I' | tala | tali | tala?i | tala?i |
| ßú 'you' | talar | talir | tala?ir | tala?ir |
| hann 'he' | talar | tali | tala?i | tala?i |
| vi? 'we' | tölum | tölum | tölu?um | tölu?um |
| ßi? | tali? | tali? | tölu?u? | tölu?u? |
| ßeir | tala | tali | tölu?u | tölu?u |
In addition to finite verb agreement, some Germanic languages have predicative agreement, where a participle (and/or adjective) agrees with the subject in a subject predicative, and with the object in an object predicative.
Swedish
The finite verb in Swedish has the same form, irrespectively of the subject:
(1) a. Jag kom hem i går. Du kom hem igår. Han kom hem igår
I came home y'day you came home y'day he came home y'day
b. Vi kom hem igår. Ni kom hem igår. De kom hem igår.
we came home y'day you came home y'day they came home y'day
In texts written roughly before the middle of the 20th century, strong verbs (verbs of conjugation 4) are usually inflected for number.
(2) Vi kommo hem igår. Ni kommo hem igår. De kommo hem igår.
we came.pl home y'day you came.pl home y'day they came.pl home y'day
There is no similar inflection on weak verbs (conjugations 1-3).
Swedish has predicative agreement, hence past participles (and adjectives) functioning as subject predicative agree with the subject in gender and number, and functioning as object predicative, the past participle (adjective) agrees with the object in gender and number:
(3) a. Han är mördad. De är mördade.
he is murdered.sg they are murdered.pl
b. Han målade henne avklädd (common gender)
he painted her undressed.sg.
c. Han målade trädet fällt (neuter gender)
he painted tree.the felled.sg
. d. Han målade dem avklädda. (plural)
he painted them.undressed.pl
Participles also agree for gender and number in attributive position:
| Common gender singular | en skriven bok
a written book |
| Neuter gender singular | ett skrivet brev
a written letter |
| Plural | skrivna brev
written letters |
The ending -s is attached to the Swedish verb with five different functions:
Passive voice: Dörren öppnades plötsligt ‘door.the opened.PASS suddenly’.
Reciprocity: De kramades ‘they hugged (each other)’.
Reflexivity: Hans ögon tårades ‘his eyes watered’.
The deponent: Han kräktes ‘he womited’.
Absolute use: Han knuffades ‘he pushed’.
The ending ?st is not used in Swedish.
3.4.9.1. S-passive
The Swedish verb is inflected for voice, i.e. passiv may be formed by adding -s to the active verb. The s-passive is the most frequent type of passive construction in Swedish. Whereas the periphrastic passives, i.e. bli + past participle and vara + past participle usually do not correspond exactly to the active verb with respect to aktionsart, there is no such additional meaning associated with the s-passive.
In the present tense, -s is added directly to the stem, whereas
for the other verb forms, -s is added to the active form.
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine | Meaning | |
| First conjugation | sparka-s | sparka-s | sparkade-s | sparkat-s | ‘be kicked’ |
| Second conjugation | köpa-s | köp-s | köpte-s | köpt-s | ‘be bought |
| Third conjugation: | sy-s | sy-s | sydde-s | sytt-s | ‘be sewn |
| Fourth conjugation | bjuda-s | bjud-s | bjöd-s | bjudit-s | ‘be invited |
3.4.9.2. Other s-forms
When the s-form of the verb indicate reciprocity or reflexivity, the subject of the verb both carries out the action and is the goal of the action. Sometimes the s-form can be paraphrased with an ordinary active form of the verb + a reciprocive or reflexive pronoun:
(1) a. De kysstes. De kysste varandra.
they kissed-S they kissed each other
b. De gladdes åt besluted. De gladde sig åt beslutet.
they were happy-S for decision.the they was happy REFL for decision.the
Absolutely used s-verbs have an object that is not expressed, and they often indicates a habit or a tendency. Not seldom there are forms without -s with a similar meaning.
(2) a. Nässlorna bränns. Nässlorna bränner mig.
nettles.the sting-S nettles.the sting me
b. Johan retas med Katarina. Johan retar Katarina.
Johan teases-S with Katarina Johan teases Katarina.
Like the absolutely used s-verbs, the deponent s-verbs have an active meaning and are intransitive. In this case there is no corresponding s-less form of the verb.
(3) a- Jag hoppas att han reser snart.
I hope-S that he goes soon
I hope he will go soon.
b. Han andas lugnt.
he breathe-S quiet
The only deponent verbs that are found among the 500 most frequent words in Swedish are finnas ‘be, existg’ and lyckas ‘succeed’, according to Allén (1972).
General
Prepositions are words that denote a relation between two referents, either alone (the wheels of the car) or together with a verb, an adjective or a participle, like the wheels are on the car; I am afraid of dogs, singing in the rain. Prepositions are heads in preposition phrases; in all the Germanic languages they almost always precedes their complement.
Swedish
Around seventy prepositions are found among the 10.000 most frequently used Swedish words in newspapers (Allén 1972). The following ones are among the 500 most common words:
General
Under the lable adverb are classified a number of different kinds of words that have the common property of being heads in adverb phrases, i.e. in phrases that modify clauses, infinitival- and participial phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and adverb phrases:
(1) a. He was indeed a nice person.
b. He asked her not to do anything yet.
c. He drives fast.
d. He is a very lucky man.
e. He is almost always drunk.
Typically, the adverb denotes a circumstance of some kind, like degree (almost), manner (fast), a logic relation (also), time (now), location (here) and modality (maybe). The negation is also an adverb in many languages (not). Adverbs may have a deitic function (here, there; now, then), or an interrogative one (where, when, how), or they may have a quantitaitve (ever) or relational (only) meaning.
Usually, adverbs are not inflected in any way. However, some adverbs are inflected for comparison, like fast, faster, fastest.
Swedish
3.6.1. The most common adverbs
Around 600 adverbs are found among the 10.000 most frequently used Swedish words in newspapers (Allén 1972). The following ones are among the 500 most common words:
Many of the adverbs listed above are one syllabic root morphemes, like då 'then' där 'there', mer 'more', så 'so, like this' etc. When consisting of two syllables, the second one is often -a: ganska 'rather', -e: inte 'not', -an: redan 'already', innan 'before'.
Suffixes used to form adverbs are -vis gradvis 'gradually', ryktesvis 'it is rumoured that', -ligen: tydligen 'evidently, obviously', möjligen 'possibly', verkligen 'really’, -ledes: således 'consequently, accordingly, thus', -stans: någonstans 'somewhere, anywhere', -s: utomlands 'abroad', halvvägs 'halfway, midway'.
Compounding is a productive way to form new words in Swedish, and it is also used to form adverbs. There are several patterns to be noticed:
Perspective adverbs + preposition. Adverbs like ut 'out', in 'in', upp 'up', ner 'down', bort 'away', hem 'home' can be combined with prepositions like ifrån, på, till, åt to form adverbs: This is here illustrated with upp: upp-för 'uphill', upp-ifrån 'from above', upp-ikring 'up round the top', upp-till 'at the top', upp-åt 'upwards'.
Other types: efter-hand 'afterwards', för-resten, för-övrigt 'besides, furthermore', kan-hända, kan-ske 'maybe'.
fort, fortare, fortast 'fast'
gärna, hellre, helst 'willingly, readily'
illa, sämre, sämst 'badly; worse, poorer, inferior'
illa, värre, värst 'badly; worse'
lite(t), mindre, minst 'little, just a little, somewhat, slightly'
länge, längre, längst 'long, for a long time'
mycket, mera, mest 'much'
nära, närmare, närmast 'near, close to, near by'
ofta, oftare, oftast 'often'
sakta, saktare, saktast 'slowly'
väl, bättre, bäst 'well, carefully'
3.6.3. Various types of adverbs
The adverbs are classified according the kind of circumstance they refer to, and according to the way their meaning is specified by the context. Both principles of division apply to each adverb.
3.6.3.1. Classification according to the type of circumstance referred to
Many of the meanings expressed by adverbs are also found with prepositional phrases and some kinds of noun phrases; thus, e.g. time may be expressed by an adverb like nu 'now', a prepositional phrase like i går 'yesterday', and a noun phrase like förra sommaren 'last summer'. It is typical of these meanings that they syntactically function as adverbials.
Degree
föga '(very) little', ganska 'rather', lika 'in the same way, alike, just as', alltför 'too, far too', hur 'how'.
Manner
The adverbs in this group denote means: muntligen 'orally', distribution: tillsammans 'together', function: försöksvis 'experimentally. tentatively', scope: bitvis ‘occasionally, in some places', condition: uppsåtligen 'intentionally, deliberately', other meanings: hur 'how', illa 'badly', framlänges 'forward[s]’.
Time
nu 'now', då 'then', genast 'immediately', länge 'for a long time', hittills 'up to now, hitherto', ofta 'often', ibland 'sometimes', igen 'again'.
Location
någonstans 'somewhere', jämsides 'side by side', där 'there', här 'here, at this place', var 'where'. hit 'here, thus far, in this direction', dit 'there, that way', norrut 'northwards', varifrån 'from where', metervis 'by the metre, metres and metres (of)'.
Selection
därom 'about', härpå 'on this', varöver 'over which'
Logical relation
varför 'why', alltså 'thus'.
Negation
ej, icke, inte 'not', knappast 'hardly'
Clausal modification
This classification divides the adverbs in two sets, according to how they get their meaning: the meaning of pronominal adverbs is to a great extent dependent on the context and the situation around the discourse, whereas the meanings of descriptive adverbs to a higher degree are dependent on the lexical meaning of the adverb itself.
Pronominal adverbs
This group contains definite adverbs like här 'here', där 'there', interrogative adverbs like var 'where', varifrån 'from where', quantitative adverbs like alltid 'always', överallt 'everywhere', var som helst 'anywhere', ofta 'often', någonsin 'ever', inte 'not', aldrig 'never', relational adverbs like lika 'in the same way, alike, just as', igen 'again', hemifrån 'away from home'; the last group also contains focussing adverbs like bara 'only' in examples like det är bara jag 'it is only me.
Descriptive adverbs
This group contains characterizing adverbs like fort 'fast' and classifying adverbs like utomlands 'abroad'.