Verbs in Swedish, as in English, can be flattened into adjectives by turning them into participles: a running dog, a broken window. Swedish has the same two participles — present (running) and past (broken) — but they behave in opposite ways when used as adjectives, and that asymmetry is the whole lesson. The present participle never changes to match its noun. The past participle always changes, agreeing in gender, number, and definiteness exactly like an ordinary adjective. English speakers, whose participles never inflect at all, tend to get this precisely backwards: they inflect the wrong one and leave the other alone. Get the asymmetry straight and the rest is mechanical. (This page is about participles as adjectives; for the participle inside compound tenses see the supine, and for the verbal passive see The Passive: Overview.)
The present participle: -ande / -ende, invariable
The present participle is formed from the verb stem plus -ande (for most verbs) or -ende (for short verbs ending in a long vowel and a few others): springa → springande ("running"), le → leende ("smiling"), växa → växande ("growing"). Used as an adjective, it describes something actively doing the verb — a smiling child, a growing problem.
The key fact: it is invariable. It looks identical whether the noun is common or neuter, singular or plural, indefinite or definite. There is no -t, no -a, nothing. This is a relief — there is nothing to conjugate.
Ett sjungande barn satt på trappan.
A singing child sat on the steps. sjungande stays the same even before a neuter noun — no -t.
Den leende flickan vinkade till oss.
The smiling girl waved at us. Even in a definite phrase, leende takes no -e ending — it's invariable.
Vi har ett växande problem med löss i skolan.
We have a growing problem with lice at the school. växande, neuter noun, still no change.
De springande hundarna skrämde grannarna.
The running dogs scared the neighbours. Plural, definite — springande unchanged.
The past participle: agrees like any adjective
The past participle is the opposite. Used as an adjective it describes something that has undergone the verb — a painted wall, a closed door — and it agrees fully: common vs. neuter, singular vs. plural, indefinite vs. definite, exactly like stor → stort → stora. Which endings it takes depends on which verb conjugation the verb belongs to, because the past participle is built from the same stem as the verb's supine.
| Conjugation (example verb) | Common sg. | Neuter sg. | Plural / definite |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st: måla (paint) | en målad vägg | ett målat hus | de målade väggarna |
| 2nd: stänga (close) | en stängd dörr | ett stängt fönster | de stängda dörrarna |
| 3rd: sy (sew) | en sydd klänning | ett sytt plagg | de sydda kläderna |
| strong: skriva (write) | en skriven bok | ett skrivet brev | de skrivna böckerna |
So the endings come in four families, matching the verb's conjugation:
- -ad / -at / -ade — first-conjugation verbs (målad, målat, målade).
- -d / -t / -da — most second-conjugation verbs (stängd, stängt, stängda).
- -dd / -tt / -dda — third-conjugation verbs ending in a long vowel (sydd, sytt, sydda).
- -en / -et / -na — strong (fourth-conjugation) verbs (skriven, skrivet, skrivna).
En målad vägg torkar långsammare än en tapetserad.
A painted wall dries more slowly than a wallpapered one. målad, common-gender singular, first conjugation.
Lämna inte ett målat staket i regnet.
Don't leave a painted fence in the rain. Neuter staket forces målat — the -t agreement that the present participle would NOT show.
De nymålade väggarna luktar fortfarande.
The freshly painted walls still smell. Plural definite → målade (here nymålade).
En stängd dörr, ett stängt fönster och stängda gardiner — huset såg övergivet ut.
A closed door, a closed window and closed curtains — the house looked abandoned. Watch one participle agree three ways: stängd / stängt / stängda.
The strong past participle in -en / -et / -na
The fourth family deserves its own spotlight, because it is where the participle's link to the verb system becomes visible — and where competitors that treat adjectives and verbs as separate topics lose the thread. Strong verbs (the ones with vowel changes: skriva–skrev–skrivit, bryta–bröt–brutit, sjunga–sjöng–sjungit) form a past participle in -en, with neuter -et and plural/definite -na. This -en/-et/-na form is built on the same strong stem you see throughout the verb's paradigm — it is not a random adjective ending but the verb's own machinery surfacing in adjectival clothing.
| Verb | Common sg. | Neuter sg. | Plural / definite |
|---|---|---|---|
| skriva (write) | skriven | skrivet | skrivna |
| bryta (break) | bruten | brutet | brutna |
| sjunga (sing) | sjungen | sjunget | sjungna |
| binda (bind) | bunden | bundet | bundna |
En skriven bok är en sak, ett skrivet brev en annan.
A written book is one thing, a written letter another. skriven (common) vs skrivet (neuter) — strong participle agreeing.
De skrivna reglerna gäller, inte de oskrivna.
The written rules apply, not the unwritten ones. Plural definite → skrivna.
Ett brutet löfte och en bruten arm gör lika ont.
A broken promise and a broken arm hurt equally. brutet (neuter) and bruten (common), both from bryta.
Note the spelling: in the neuter, skriven → skrivet (the -en becomes -et), and in the plural the -e- is squeezed out — skriven → skrivna, bruten → brutna, sjungen → sjungna. Keep the stem vowels of the strong verb intact: sjungen / sjunget / sjungna all carry the u, while the supine is sjungit — the participle and supine share the strong stem but are not identical.
Predicative position: agreement still applies to the past participle
When a past participle is predicative — after vara, bli, verka — it still agrees with the subject, just as a predicative adjective does. The present participle, predictably, still does not.
Dörren är stängd, men fönstret är öppet.
The door is closed, but the window is open. Predicative stängd agrees with the common-gender dörren.
Breven blev aldrig skrivna.
The letters never got written. Plural subject → skrivna, even predicatively.
Problemet är växande.
The problem is growing. Predicative present participle — still no agreement, no -t even with neuter problemet.
Common Mistakes
❌ ett växandet problem
Incorrect — the present participle never takes -t (or any agreement). It's invariable.
✅ ett växande problem
a growing problem. -ande stays frozen before a neuter noun.
❌ ett stängd fönster
Incorrect — the past participle DOES agree; a neuter noun needs the neuter -t form.
✅ ett stängt fönster
a closed window. stängd → stängt for neuter.
❌ de målad väggarna
Incorrect — plural/definite past participle takes -ade.
✅ de målade väggarna
the painted walls. Plural definite → målade.
❌ ett skriven brev
Incorrect — the strong participle has a neuter form: skriven → skrivet.
✅ ett skrivet brev
a written letter. Strong participle agrees: -en → -et for neuter.
❌ de skrivenna böckerna
Incorrect — in the plural the strong participle drops the -e-: skriven → skrivna.
✅ de skrivna böckerna
the written books. skriven → skrivna in the plural.
Key Takeaways
- The asymmetry is everything: the present participle (-ande/-ende) is invariable — never agrees; the past participle (-ad/-d/-dd/-en) always agrees in gender, number, and definiteness.
- English speakers' instinct (inflect nothing) leaves the past participle wrong; resist it. Ett stängt fönster, not ett stängd fönster.
- Past-participle endings track the verb's conjugation: 1st -ad/-at/-ade, 2nd -d/-t/-da, 3rd -dd/-tt/-dda, strong -en/-et/-na.
- The strong participle (skriven/skrivet/skrivna) is the verb's strong stem in adjectival form — keep the stem vowel, change -en → -et for neuter and drop the -e- for the plural (skrivna).
- Agreement holds in predicative position too for the past participle (Dörren är stängd, Breven blev skrivna), and the present participle stays frozen there as well.
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- The Past Participle (Agreeing Form)B1 — The past participle (perfektparticip) is the form that AGREES with its noun — målad/målat/målade, skriven/skrivet/skrivna — and is used as an adjective and in the bli/vara-passive. It is a different word from the supine (skrivit), even when they come from the same verb, and strong verbs often show a different vowel in the two: supine skrivit but participle skriven.
- The Present Participle (-ande, -ende)B2 — The present participle ends in -ande (springande) or -ende (leende). It is INVARIABLE and never inflects, and — crucially for English speakers — it does NOT form continuous tenses: Swedish has no 'I am reading' built from it. It is purely adjectival, adverbial, or nominal.
- The Passive Voice: OverviewB1 — Swedish has three ways to form the passive: the synthetic -s passive (Boken läses) — by far the most common; the bli-passive (Boken blev läst) for a dynamic event; and the vara-passive (Dörren är stängd) for a resultant state. The agent goes in an 'av' phrase. This page maps all three and routes you to the detail pages.
- Neuter Agreement: the -t FormA1 — When an adjective describes an ett-word, it takes a -t ending (ett rött hus, huset är rött) — and a small set of regular spelling shifts (röd → rött, glad → glatt) and invariable adjectives (bra, kul) account for nearly every case English speakers get wrong.