falla means "to fall," and it is a strong verb whose one tricky form is the past tense föll — with an ö, not an a or o. The full triple is falla–föll–fallit. Falla is intransitive: things fall on their own (leaves, prices, snow). When you make something else fall — chop down a tree, drop a verdict, topple an opponent — Swedish switches to the separate transitive verb fälla. The two are a classic vowel-distinguished pair, and keeping them apart is the central skill on this card.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| falla | faller | föll | fallit | fall | strong, a–ö–a |
The vowel runs a → ö → a: infinitive and present keep a (falla, faller), the past is föll with ö, and the supine returns to a in fallit — used after ha for the perfect (har fallit). The past participle is fallen (ett fallet löv, "a fallen leaf"). The imperative is fall. The single most common error is writing the past as *fall or *foll; it is föll, with the dotted ö.
Löven faller tidigt i år.
The leaves are falling early this year. faller — present, vowel a.
Han halkade och föll på isen.
He slipped and fell on the ice. föll — strong past, vowel ö. This is the form to memorise.
Temperaturen har fallit under noll.
The temperature has fallen below zero. har fallit — perfect, supine vowel back to a.
Use 1: literal and figurative falling
Falla covers physical falling and a wide range of figurative drops — prices, temperatures, governments, night falling. It is intransitive throughout: the subject is the thing that goes down.
Priserna föll kraftigt efter beskedet.
Prices dropped sharply after the announcement. föll — figurative fall, common in news Swedish.
Regeringen föll efter omröstningen.
The government fell after the vote. A government 'falls' in Swedish just as in English.
Use 2: idioms with falla
Several high-frequency idioms are built on falla with a particle. The most useful:
- falla i sömn — "fall asleep" (literally "fall into sleep")
- falla isär — "fall apart, come apart"
- falla bort — "drop away, lapse, be omitted"
- det faller sig naturligt — "it comes naturally"
Barnet föll i sömn mitt i sagan.
The child fell asleep in the middle of the story. falla i sömn — note: i sömn, no article.
Den gamla lådan föll isär när jag lyfte den.
The old box fell apart when I lifted it. falla isär — come apart.
Det faller sig naturligt för henne att tala inför folk.
It comes naturally to her to speak in front of people. det faller sig naturligt — a set phrase.
Use 3: falla vs fälla — the intransitive/transitive pair
Here is the pair that trips up English speakers, because English uses "fall" loosely. Swedish is strict:
- falla (strong: föll, fallit) — intransitive. The subject falls by itself: trädet faller ("the tree falls").
- fälla (weak: fällde, fällt) — transitive. Someone makes something fall: fälla ett träd ("fell a tree"), fälla en dom ("hand down a verdict"), fälla tårar ("shed tears").
English happens to preserve a faint echo of this in fall vs the archaic causative fell ("to fell a tree"). Swedish keeps the distinction alive and everyday.
Stormen fällde flera träd i parken.
The storm felled several trees in the park. fälla (transitive) — the storm makes the trees fall.
Träden föll över vägen i stormen.
The trees fell across the road in the storm. falla (intransitive) — the trees fall by themselves.
Domstolen fällde honom för stölden.
The court convicted him of the theft. fälla en dom / fälla någon — 'hand down a verdict / convict', a transitive sense.
So the test is simple: is there a separate thing being made to fall (an object)? Then fälla (fällde). Does the subject just go down on its own? Then falla (föll).
Common Mistakes
❌ Han fallade på isen.
Incorrect — falla is strong, no -ade. The regularisation trap: the past is föll, not *fallade.
✅ Han föll på isen.
He fell on the ice. Strong past with ö: föll.
❌ Han fall på isen. / Han foll på isen.
Incorrect — the past is föll, with the dotted ö — not the bare stem *fall and not *foll.
✅ Han föll på isen.
He fell on the ice.
❌ Vi måste falla det här trädet.
Incorrect — to make something fall you need the transitive fälla, not falla.
✅ Vi måste fälla det här trädet.
We have to fell this tree. Transitive fälla (fällde, fällt).
❌ Trädet fällde under stormen. (meaning 'the tree fell')
Incorrect — if the tree falls by itself it's the intransitive falla; fällde needs an object that gets felled.
✅ Trädet föll under stormen.
The tree fell during the storm.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Index of Strong Verbs by PatternB1 — A navigable index of the common Swedish strong verbs, grouped by ablaut pattern rather than alphabetically — i–e–i (skriva/skrev/skrivit), i–a–u (dricka/drack/druckit), a–o–a (ta/tog/tagit), and the irregular/contracted set (gå/gick/gått). Each group is a four-part table of principal parts with English cognate hints, because organising strong verbs by shared vowel pattern turns a scary list into a few learnable families.
- Strong Pattern: a – o – a and Other Classes (ta, fara, dra)B2 — The remaining strong patterns plus the contracted high-frequency verbs. a–o–a: fara/for/farit, ta/tog/tagit, dra/drog/dragit, slå/slog/slagit. The å/ö classes: få/fick/fått, gå/gick/gått, stå/stod/stått. Small mixed sets: komma/kom/kommit, sova/sov/sovit, falla/föll/fallit, hålla/höll/hållit, låta/lät/låtit. The everyday verbs look irregular because they're contracted, but they cluster into tiny patterns — and you must not regularise gick or tog.
- Strong Verbs: Overview and Principal PartsB1 — Strong verbs (Group 4) don't add a past-tense ending — they change their stem vowel across three principal parts: skriva–skrev–skrivit. The vowel moves in recurring patterns (ablaut) that Swedish shares with English: i–a–u is the same machinery as sing–sang–sung. This page teaches you to read principal parts, recognise the classes, and leverage the English cognate vowels so memorisation becomes pattern-recognition.