eruvande Posted October 29, 2013 Report Share Posted October 29, 2013 Can someone explain the basic present and past tense for verbs? Also are there any common irregular verbs to watch out for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calticitron Posted November 19, 2013 Report Share Posted November 19, 2013 Swedish verbs are categorized into several groups and sub-groups. I would say that there is no one basic rule for present and past tense of verbs, and you have to know each of them by heart if you are to use them properly. One example, which is the easiest, is the first verb group. These are words that end with the letter a in its infinitive form. The word "show", meaning to "show someone or something" translates directly to the verb "visa". It then becomes Present tense: visar = showingPast tense: visade = showed Supine or Past Participle: har visat = has shownOther verb groups transform according to what letter they end, or how the last letter or vowel of the verb sounds. To answer your last question, irregular verbs are the most difficult to learn because they have separate rules, where the vowels change when the verb is used in present, past, and supine tenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadence Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 I realise now that it is really hard to explain your own language to someone who's learning it for the first time. I know all the right forms of every word in the swedish language but if I tried to explain it it would probably just get really messy and confusing. To me it's so obvious that "visa" becomes "visade" in past tense that I don't even think about why. It's just "how it's supposed to be". Interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanaseru Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 On 11/19/2013 at 4:59 PM, calticitron said: Swedish verbs are categorized into several groups and sub-groups. I would say that there is no one basic rule for present and past tense of verbs, and you have to know each of them by heart if you are to use them properly. One example, which is the easiest, is the first verb group. These are words that end with the letter a in its infinitive form. The word "show", meaning to "show someone or something" translates directly to the verb "visa". It then becomes Present tense: visar = showingPast tense: visade = showed Supine or Past Participle: har visat = has shownOther verb groups transform according to what letter they end, or how the last letter or vowel of the verb sounds. To answer your last question, irregular verbs are the most difficult to learn because they have separate rules, where the vowels change when the verb is used in present, past, and supine tenses.Pardon me if I get this wrong (my swedish isn't SOOO good)About irregular verbs, many of the irregular verbs in Swedish are also irregular in English (strong verbs) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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