Svømme ("to swim") is a regular weak -ede verb, but it packs two features worth slowing down for. First, its stem ends in -mm-, and that double consonant survives into every form — svømmer, svømmede, svømmet — so English speakers must resist simplifying it to a single m. Second, svømme sits on the boundary between the two perfect auxiliaries: as a pure activity it takes har, but the moment swimming has a destination — swimming across — Danish can switch to er, treating it as a change of position. This page lays out the paradigm, the auxiliary nuance, and the everyday pool vocabulary built on the verb.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) svømme | to swim |
| Present | svømmer | swim(s) |
| Past | svømmede | swam |
| Past participle | svømmet | swum |
| Imperative | svøm! | swim! |
Present: svømmer
The present svømmer is identical for every subject.
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | svømmer | jeg svømmer tre gange om ugen |
| du | svømmer | du svømmer godt |
| han / hun | svømmer | hun svømmer baglæns |
| vi | svømmer | vi svømmer i havet om sommeren |
| de | svømmer | de svømmer om kap |
Jeg svømmer tyve baner, hver gang jeg er i svømmehallen.
I swim twenty laps every time I'm at the pool.
Om sommeren svømmer vi i havet næsten hver dag.
In summer we swim in the sea almost every day.
Past: svømmede
The past is svømmede — the -ede ending on the double-m stem. Say it in three syllables: svøm-me-de.
Vi svømmede ud til badebroen og tilbage igen.
We swam out to the jetty and back again.
Hun svømmede fem hundrede meter uden at holde pause.
She swam five hundred metres without stopping.
Present perfect: har svømmet (activity)
For swimming as an activity — distance, training, a hobby — the perfect uses har plus svømmet.
Jeg har svømmet siden jeg var fem år gammel.
I've swum since I was five years old.
Har du svømmet i dag, eller var bassinet lukket?
Have you swum today, or was the pool closed?
Present perfect with er: motion to a goal
When the swimming reaches a destination — typically with over ("across") — Danish reframes it as a change of position and switches to er.
Hun er svømmet over til den anden side af søen.
She has swum across to the other side of the lake.
Da vi kom, var de allerede svømmet ud til øen.
When we arrived, they had already swum out to the island.
Past perfect: havde / var svømmet
The same split carries into the past perfect — havde svømmet for the activity, var svømmet for reaching a goal.
Han var helt udmattet, fordi han havde svømmet hele formiddagen.
He was completely exhausted because he had swum all morning.
Svømmehal, svømme over and pool vocabulary
The most common derived noun is en svømmehal ("an indoor swimming pool"), while an outdoor pool is et svømmebassin or just et bassin. The phrasal svømme over means "to swim across."
Vi tager i svømmehallen i morgen tidlig — den åbner klokken syv.
We're going to the pool tomorrow morning — it opens at seven.
Tror du, du kan svømme over floden her?
Do you think you can swim across the river here?
Common collocations and fixed expressions
- svømme over — to swim across
- svømme om kap — to race (swimming) someone
- svømme baner — to swim laps
- gå i svømmehallen — to go to the (indoor) pool
- lære at svømme — to learn to swim
Børnene svømmer om kap fra den ene ende af bassinet til den anden.
The children race each other from one end of the pool to the other.
A natural exchange
— Har du svømmet i dag? — Ja, jeg svømmede tredive baner i morges. Bagefter svømmede min søn over til den anden side helt alene. — Hvor er han allerede god! Hvornår lærte han det? — Han har svømmet i klub siden i efteråret.
— Have you swum today? — Yes, I swam thirty laps this morning. Afterwards my son swam across to the other side all by himself. — He's so good already! When did he learn? — He's been swimming with a club since the autumn.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg svømede i søen i går.
Lost the double-m — the stem keeps -mm- throughout: svømmer, svømmede, svømmet.
✅ Jeg svømmede i søen i går.
I swam in the lake yesterday.
❌ Jeg svømte hver dag i ferien.
Wrong past — svømme is an -ede verb, so the past is svømmede, not the -te form svømte.
✅ Jeg svømmede hver dag i ferien.
I swam every day on holiday.
❌ Hun har svømmet over til øen.
With a destination, motion verbs take er — er svømmet over expresses reaching the goal.
✅ Hun er svømmet over til øen.
She has swum across to the island.
❌ Jeg er svømmet en time i dag.
A timed activity with no goal takes har, not er.
✅ Jeg har svømmet en time i dag.
I've swum for an hour today.
❌ Jeg har svømme i dag.
Missing the participle ending — the perfect needs svømmet, not the bare stem.
✅ Jeg har svømmet i dag.
I've swum today.
For the broader pattern behind svømmede, see the -ede past tense; for the har/er choice across motion verbs, compare løbe and the notes on phrasal verbs.
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Weak Past: The -ede ClassA1 — The largest, productive class of Danish regular verbs — past in -ede, participle in -et — and the safe default for any verb you don't recognise.
- The Present PerfectA2 — How Danish builds the present perfect with have (or være) plus the past participle — and the one rule English speakers need: definite past time takes the simple past, not the perfect.
- Phrasal Verbs and ParticlesB1 — Danish verb + particle combinations, the stress rule that distinguishes a separable phrasal verb from a verb + preposition, and the most common particles and their meanings.
- Danish Verbs: An OverviewA1 — A big-picture map of the Danish verb system — no person agreement, one present and one past form per verb, compound perfects, the passive, and modals.
- LøbeB1 — Full reference for the strong verb løbe ('to run' on foot) — løber / løb / løbet — with its key idioms løbe tør for, løbe ind i and løbe rundt, plus the løbe-vs-køre-vs-rende distinction.