älska means "to love." It is a perfectly regular Group 1 verb — the same class as tala and prata — so every form falls out by rule, with no stem change and no surprises. The one thing English speakers most need to remember is grammatical, not lexical: like English love, älska takes a direct object with no preposition attached.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| älska | älskar | älskade | älskat | älska | Group 1 |
Everything here is mechanical. The present is the infinitive plus -r (älska → älskar). The past adds the full -ade (älskade). The supine — the form after har — ends in -at (älskat). The imperative is the bare stem, identical to the infinitive: Älska livet! ("Love life!"). There is no agreement with the subject: jag älskar, hon älskar, de älskar are all the same form.
Use 1: loving a person — present tense
The headline use is loving someone. The person you love is a plain direct object — no preposition, exactly as in English "I love you."
Jag älskar dig.
I love you. älskar + the direct object dig, no preposition — the single most-said sentence with this verb.
Hon älskar sin lillebror över allt annat.
She loves her little brother above all else. The object sin lillebror follows älskar directly.
Vi älskar varandra fortfarande efter trettio år.
We still love each other after thirty years. varandra ('each other') is the direct object.
Use 2: loving a thing or an activity
älska works for things, places and activities too, and here it is genuinely strong — "love," not merely "like." With an activity, follow it with att + infinitive, which renders the English -ing sense: älska att resa is "love travelling."
Jag älskar att resa, särskilt på hösten.
I love travelling, especially in autumn. älska + att + infinitive for 'love doing something'.
Barnen älskar glass — de skulle äta det varje dag om de fick.
The kids love ice cream — they'd eat it every day if they could. A thing as direct object.
Use 3: past and perfect
The past älskade and the perfect har älskat are fully regular. Use the past for a completed or framed past situation, and the perfect for a love that reaches into the present.
Jag älskade den filmen när jag var liten.
I loved that film when I was little. älskade — the regular Group 1 past, a framed past feeling.
Hon älskade honom in i det sista.
She loved him to the very end. älskade in a completed, whole-life sense.
Jag har alltid älskat den här staden.
I've always loved this city. har älskat — the perfect, supine älskat after har.
älska vs gilla vs tycka om
This is where learners most often misjudge. älska is strong — it is reserved for deep affection (people, passions) or used as a deliberate, enthusiastic exaggeration ("I love this song!"). For everyday "like," Swedish reaches for the milder gilla or tycka om, not älska. Saying Jag älskar dig to a casual acquaintance lands exactly as "I love you" would in English — far too strong. For "I like you," say Jag gillar dig.
| Verb | Strength | Example |
|---|---|---|
| älska | love (strong) | Jag älskar dig. — I love you. |
| tycka om | like (neutral) | Jag tycker om dig. — I like you. |
| gilla | like (everyday/informal) | Jag gillar dig. — I like you. |
Jag gillar honom, men jag älskar honom inte.
I like him, but I don't love him. The two verbs sit at clearly different strengths.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag älskar med dig.
Incorrect — adding med changes the meaning entirely (it implies a sexual sense). 'I love you' takes a bare direct object.
✅ Jag älskar dig.
I love you.
❌ Jag älsker svenska. (Group 2 ending)
Incorrect — älska is Group 1, so the present is älskar (-ar), not *älsker (-er).
✅ Jag älskar svenska.
I love Swedish.
❌ Jag älskade min nya granne direkt.
Off in register — for liking someone on meeting them, this is far too strong. Use gilla or tycka om.
✅ Jag gillade min nya granne direkt.
I liked my new neighbour right away.
❌ Jag har älskade den här staden i åratal.
Incorrect — after har you need the supine älskat, not the preteritum älskade.
✅ Jag har älskat den här staden i åratal.
I've loved this city for years.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Using the Verb ReferenceA2 — How to read the single-verb reference cards and the principal-parts citation system that underpins them. Every Swedish verb is cited as a short chain — infinitive – present – preteritum – supine – (past participle) — because every other form is derivable from those parts. This page decodes one weak verb (tala – talar – talade – talat) and one strong verb (skriva – skriver – skrev – skrivit – skriven), explains the conjugation-group labels (1/2/3/4), and gives a key to everything on a card.
- The Four Conjugation GroupsA2 — Swedish verbs sort into four conjugation classes, identified not by the present tense but by the PAST (preteritum) and supine: Group 1 (talar/talade/talat), Group 2 (ringer/ringde/ringt, köper/köpte/köpt), Group 3 (bor/bodde/bott), and Group 4, the strong verbs (skriver/skrev/skrivit) that change their vowel. Group 1 is so dominant and regular that every new and borrowed verb joins it — so treat it as the default and memorise only the closed list of strong verbs.
- Verb + Preposition GovernmentB2 — Many Swedish verbs demand a specific, unpredictable preposition: tänka på (think about), vänta på (wait for), tro på (believe in), be om (ask for), tycka om (like), längta efter (long for), bero på (depend on). The governed preposition rarely matches English's, and it's unstressed (unlike a particle), so these combinations are vocabulary items you learn as whole units.