Swedish proverbs are tiny grammar museums: they preserve constructions and word choices that ordinary speech has long since simplified away, which is why a single four-word saying can teach more than a paragraph of dialogue. Skåda inte given häst i munnen — word for word "Behold not given horse in the mouth," i.e. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" — is a perfect specimen. In it sit a negative imperative, a past participle pressed into service as a bare attributive adjective, and a definite-not-possessive body part, all wrapped in a deliberately literary verb. We take the proverb whole, then dismantle it. (For the genre in general, see Reading Swedish Proverbs.)
The proverb
Skåda inte given häst i munnen.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. (literally: Behold not given horse in the mouth.)
The image is the same one English uses: when someone gives you a horse, you do not inspect its teeth to judge its age and value — you accept the gift graciously instead of appraising it. The lesson is "don't be ungrateful about a free thing." What makes the Swedish version a worthwhile read is not the meaning, which transfers cleanly, but the four words that carry it, each of which is doing something a learner should be able to name.
Skåda — a literary verb for "look at"
The first word sets the register for the whole saying. Skåda does not mean ordinary "look" — that is titta or kolla. Skåda is an elevated, literary verb meaning "to behold, to gaze upon," the word you would use of viewing a landscape, an eclipse, or a work of art, not of glancing at your phone.
Från toppen kunde vi skåda hela dalen. (literary)
From the summit we could behold the whole valley.
Tusentals människor kom för att skåda kungaparet. (literary/formal)
Thousands of people came to behold the royal couple.
You will also meet skåda in fixed compounds that survive in everyday speech even though the bare verb feels grand: a fågelskådare is a birdwatcher, åskådare are spectators, and an åskådning is a worldview or a viewing. The choice of skåda over titta in the proverb is deliberate: it lends the saying the weight of an old commandment. Translate it in your head as "Behold not..." rather than "Don't look at..." and the tone lands correctly.
Skåda inte — the negative imperative
The verb form skåda is an imperative — a command. Swedish imperatives are mostly easy: for the large first conjugation, the imperative is identical to the bare stem, which is also identical to the infinitive (skåda is both "to behold" and "behold!"). For other verbs the imperative drops the infinitive's final -a (springa "to run" → spring! "run!"). The full system is on The Imperative.
What this proverb shows is specifically the negative imperative — how Swedish says "don't do X." The answer is reassuringly simple: you put the negator inte ("not") after the verb.
Skåda inte given häst i munnen.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Spring inte i korridoren!
Don't run in the corridor!
Oroa dig inte.
Don't worry. (literally: Worry-yourself not.)
For an English speaker this is the headline contrast. English builds its negative command with the dummy auxiliary do: "Don't look," "don't run." Swedish has no do-support — there is no helper verb at all. You take the plain imperative and simply append inte: Skåda → Skåda inte. The order is verb + inte, never inte + verb (you cannot say Inte skåda as a command). This mirrors the placement of inte in ordinary main clauses, where it follows the finite verb; the imperative just keeps that habit.
Given — a past participle used as a bare adjective
Now the most interesting word, and the heart of the proverb's grammar: given, "given." This is the past participle of the verb ge (older giva), "to give" — and here it is functioning as an adjective describing the noun häst ("horse"). A given häst is "a given horse," i.e. a horse that has been given to you, a gift horse.
Swedish past participles routinely work as adjectives, exactly as English ones do ("a broken window," "a written agreement"). Ge is a strong verb, so its participle is the strong form given (not a weak -ad/-d form); the verb ge / giva belongs to the i–a–u/i pattern, giving supine givit and participle given. Crucially, a participle used attributively is a real adjective and agrees with its noun in gender and number:
| Form | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| common gender (en-word) | en given häst | a given horse |
| neuter (ett-word) | ett givet löfte | a given promise |
| plural / definite | de givna svaren | the given answers |
Under givna omständigheter gör man så gott man kan.
Under given circumstances one does the best one can.
Det är en given fördel att kunna språket.
It's a given advantage to know the language.
So why does the proverb say bare given häst with no article — neither en given häst ("a given horse") nor den givna hästen ("the given horse")? Because dropping the article is a hallmark of proverb and aphorism style. Sayings strip out little grammatical words — articles, sometimes prepositions — to sound compressed, timeless, and rule-like. Ordinary prose would absolutely require the article: you would say Skåda inte en given häst i munnen in a normal sentence. The article-less given häst is grammatically "incomplete" by everyday standards, and that very incompleteness is the proverb signaling "I am a maxim, not a sentence." English does the identical thing in its own proverbs ("Dead men tell no tales," "Spilt milk"), so the instinct transfers.
Participle vs. supine — don't confuse them
One trap worth flagging: the participle given ("given," an adjective that agrees) is not the same form as the supine givit ("given," used after ha to build the perfect). Compare Jag har givit honom en häst ("I have given him a horse" — supine givit, after har, invariable) with en given häst ("a given horse" — participle given, agreeing as an adjective). English collapses both into one word, "given," which is exactly why English speakers mix them up. Swedish keeps them apart: the supine never agrees and only appears after ha; the participle agrees and behaves like any adjective. The distinction is set out fully on Supine vs. Past Participle and The Past Participle.
i munnen — the definite, not a possessive
The final phrase i munnen means "in the mouth," and it hides a small but very Swedish point. The noun is mun ("mouth") in its definite form munnen ("the mouth") — mun + the definite suffix -en. Note also the doubled n: the short vowel of mun forces munnen with two n's in writing.
What English does here is use a possessive: "don't look a gift horse in its mouth," or simply "in the mouth" understood as the horse's. Swedish, like several European languages, strongly prefers the plain definite for body parts when the owner is obvious from context — i munnen, literally "in the mouth," with the horse understood as the owner. You do not say i dess mun ("in its mouth") here; the definite munnen already carries "the mouth in question."
Han stoppade händerna i fickorna.
He put his hands in his pockets. (literally: ...the hands in the pockets.)
Jag slog mig på knäet.
I hurt my knee. (literally: I hit myself on the knee.)
This is a steady habit of the language: where English reaches for my / his / its with body parts and personal items, Swedish reaches for the definite article-suffix plus, often, a reflexive elsewhere in the clause to mark the owner. I munnen is a textbook instance compressed into a proverb.
Putting it back together
Read straight through, the anatomy is:
- Skåda — literary imperative "behold" (register-setting; everyday speech would use titta på),
- inte — the negator, placed after the verb to make a negative command, with no "do",
- given häst — past participle given ("given," from ge) used as a bare attributive adjective, the missing article marking proverb style,
- i munnen — i
- definite munnen ("in the mouth"), the definite where English uses a possessive.
Four words, four lessons — which is the whole appeal of reading proverbs as grammar.
Common Mistakes
❌ Inte skåda given häst i munnen.
Incorrect — inte cannot come before the verb in a command.
✅ Skåda inte given häst i munnen.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. (verb first, then inte)
❌ Skåda inte ge häst i munnen.
Incorrect — ge is the infinitive 'to give', not the participle. You need the adjective form.
✅ Skåda inte given häst i munnen.
...given (participle, used as an adjective) horse...
❌ Du inte skåda hästen.
Incorrect — no 'do'-support and no subject in a command; this is calqued from English 'You don't look...'.
✅ Skåda inte hästen.
Don't look at the horse. (bare imperative + inte)
❌ Skåda inte given häst i sin mun.
Incorrect — Swedish uses the definite munnen for the body part, not a possessive.
✅ Skåda inte given häst i munnen.
...in the mouth. (definite, owner understood)
❌ Jag har given honom en häst.
Incorrect — confuses the participle 'given' with the supine; after har you need the supine givit.
✅ Jag har givit honom en häst.
I have given him a horse. (supine givit after har)
Key takeaways
- A negative imperative in Swedish is just the bare imperative plus inte after it — Skåda inte — with no do-support.
- given is the past participle of ge used as an attributive adjective ("a given horse"); attributive participles agree (given / givet / givna), unlike the supine givit used after ha.
- Proverbs drop the article (given häst, not en given häst) for a compressed, timeless feel — everyday prose would restore it.
- i munnen shows Swedish using the definite for a body part where English uses a possessive.
- skåda is a literary verb ("behold"); its loftiness is what makes the saying feel like an old commandment.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Reading Swedish ProverbsA2 — Swedish proverbs (ordspråk) are tiny fossils of older grammar — they keep verbless clauses, fronted words, and article-less nouns that ordinary modern sentences would never allow. This page explains how to read a proverb grammatically rather than literally, previews three of the most common ones with both their literal and figurative meanings, and routes you to the close-read of each.
- The ImperativeA1 — The command form. The key insight: the Swedish imperative is the bare verb STEM, so it equals the infinitive only for Group 1 verbs (tala!). For every other group it is shorter — köp! skriv! gå! — never köpa! or köper!. Negatives just add inte (Kom inte sent!), and you soften a command into a request with a question (Kan du…?).
- 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.
- Supine vs Past ParticipleB1 — The single Swedish verb-form distinction English has no equivalent for: the supine (har skrivit — fixed, invariable, only after ha) versus the past participle (en skriven bok, ett skrivet brev, skrivna böcker — fully agreeing, used as adjective and in the passive). English collapses both into one '-en' word; Swedish splits them, and confusing the two (*har skriven, *en skrivit bok) is a hallmark learner error.