gripa is the Swedish verb "to grasp, to seize," and by extension "to arrest" — when the police griper a thief, they seize him. It is a textbook i–e–i strong verb, with principal parts gripa – griper – grep – gripit, the same vowel skeleton as skriva – skrev – skrivit and English write – wrote – written. Its most surprising offshoot is the participle gripande, which has slid from "grasping" to mean "moving, touching" — en gripande historia is a moving story, not a grabby one.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gripa | griper | grep | gripit | grip | Group 4 (strong), i–e–i |
Read the vowels across the row: i in the infinitive and present (gripa, griper), down to e in the past (grep), back to i in the supine (gripit). The past grep is a bare vowel-changed stem with no ending. The supine is gripit, so the perfect is har gripit. The agreeing past participle is gripen (en-word), gripet (ett-word), gripna (plural/definite) — used in passives like tjuven blev gripen "the thief was caught/arrested."
Han griper efter handtaget men missar.
He grasps for the handle but misses. griper — present, vowel i.
Polisen grep tjuven utanför banken.
The police arrested the thief outside the bank. grep — past, vowel e; gripa = arrest here.
De har gripit tre misstänkta i natt.
They've arrested three suspects tonight. har gripit — perfect, supine i.
Use 1: present, past and perfect
The three tenses follow the principal parts. The present griper covers both "grasps" and "is grasping." The past grep is the bare stem. The perfect is har gripit, the pluperfect hade gripit.
Bebisen griper hårt om mitt finger.
The baby grips my finger tightly. Present griper.
Hon grep min arm i sista sekunden.
She seized my arm at the last second. grep — simple past.
Innan vakterna kom hade demonstranten redan gripits.
Before the guards arrived, the protester had already been arrested. hade gripits — pluperfect passive, supine gripit + -s.
Use 2: gripa = arrest
In news language gripa is the standard word for "arrest, apprehend." The noun gripande (here "an apprehension/arrest") comes from the same stem, and you will read ett gripande in police reports. Note the two readings of gripande — context decides whether it is "an arrest" (noun) or "moving" (adjective).
Mannen greps misstänkt för stöld.
The man was arrested on suspicion of theft. greps — past passive.
Polisen rapporterade två gripanden under kvällen.
The police reported two arrests during the evening. ett gripande = an arrest (noun).
Use 3: the particle and idiom verbs
gripa lives in several fixed expressions. gripa in means "intervene, step in." gripa tag i means "grab hold of" (something physical) or figuratively "tackle, get a grip on" (a problem). gripa sig an (något) means "set about, tackle" a task.
Läraren grep in innan bråket blev värre.
The teacher intervened before the fight got worse. gripa in = intervene.
Grip tag i räcket så du inte halkar!
Grab hold of the railing so you don't slip! gripa tag i = grab hold of (imperative grip).
Vi måste gripa oss an problemet på en gång.
We have to tackle the problem right away. gripa sig an = set about, tackle.
Use 4: gripande — the participle that means "moving"
Here is the twist. The present participle gripande literally means "grasping," but in everyday Swedish it has come to mean "moving, touching, gripping" in the emotional sense — it grips your heart. En gripande film is a moving film. The metaphor mirrors English "gripping," but the Swedish word leans warm and tearful rather than thrilling.
Det var en gripande historia om förlust och hopp.
It was a moving story about loss and hope. gripande = moving, touching.
Talet vid begravningen var djupt gripande.
The speech at the funeral was deeply moving. gripande as a predicate adjective.
Use 5: the prefixed cousins — begripa and ingripa
gripa sits at the root of a whole prefix family, and all of them inherit the i–e–i pattern. begripa "to understand, grasp (mentally)" runs begripa – begriper – begrep – begripit; ingripa "to intervene" (the one-word, more formal sibling of gripa in) runs ingripa – ingriper – ingrep – ingripit; and omfatta "to encompass, comprise" is the everyday word for grasping a whole — begreppet omfattar mycket "the concept encompasses a lot." Recognising that begrep and ingrep are simply grep with a prefix tells you their past tense for free.
Jag begriper inte hur det kunde gå så fel.
I don't understand how it could go so wrong. begriper — present of begripa, 'grasp mentally'.
Till slut begrep hon vad han egentligen menade.
In the end she grasped what he really meant. begrep — past, same e-vowel as grep.
Staten ingrep för att rädda banken.
The state intervened to save the bank. ingrep — past of ingripa, the formal 'intervene'.
Common Mistakes
❌ Polisen gripade tjuven.
Incorrect — gripa is strong and takes no -ade ending. The past is the vowel-changed grep.
✅ Polisen grep tjuven.
The police arrested the thief.
❌ De har grep honom redan.
Incorrect — after har you need the supine gripit, not the past grep.
✅ De har gripit honom redan.
They've already arrested him.
❌ Tjuven blev gripit.
Wrong form for the passive — that's the supine. As an agreeing participle it's gripen (en-word).
✅ Tjuven blev gripen.
The thief was caught/arrested.
❌ Filmen var väldigt grabbande.
No such word — the participle 'moving/gripping' is gripande.
✅ Filmen var väldigt gripande.
The film was very moving.
❌ Du måste gripa problemet snabbt.
Off — to tackle a problem you need the idiom gripa dig an or gripa tag i, not bare gripa.
✅ Du måste gripa dig an problemet snabbt.
You have to tackle the problem quickly.
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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: i – e – i (skriva, bita)B1 — The cleanest strong class: infinitive i, past e, supine back to i — skriva/skrev/skrivit, bita/bet/bitit, gripa/grep/gripit, stiga/steg/stigit, rida/red/ridit, skina/sken/skinit. This is the same family as English write/wrote/written and bite/bit/bitten, so the cognate intuition transfers with only a vowel adjustment. The trap is regularising (*skrivade) or using the wrong supine vowel.
- Deverbal Nouns (-ning, -ande, -nad)B2 — Turning verbs into nouns. -ning names the action or its result (en betalning, en förändring) and is the most productive; -nad gives a few concrete results (en byggnad); and -ande/-ende is the strange one — the very same form is simultaneously a present participle, an adjective, AND a noun (ett leende = 'a smile', leende = 'smiling'). One form, three jobs.