ha is "to have," and it pulls triple duty in Swedish: it marks possession, it is the only auxiliary used to build the perfect and pluperfect, and it serves as a light verb in a cluster of everyday idioms where English would reach for "be." Master its three irregular forms and these three jobs, and a huge slice of ordinary Swedish opens up.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ha | har | hade | haft | ha | irregular |
The infinitive ha is the everyday form; the full hava still exists but is (archaic/literary) and you will only meet it in old texts, hymns, or set legal phrasing. The present is har for every subject, the past is hade, and the supine — the form after another ha in perfects — is haft.
Vi har inte mycket tid kvar.
We don't have much time left. har — present of ha, one form for all subjects.
Förr hade vi en sommarstuga vid havet.
We used to have a summer cottage by the sea. hade — the past tense.
Jag har haft ont i ryggen hela veckan.
I've had a bad back all week. haft — the supine, after har.
Use 1: possession
The plainest use is "to have" in the sense of owning, holding, or being attended by something or someone — fully parallel to English.
Har du en penna jag kan låna?
Do you have a pen I can borrow? Possession in a question — har fronts before the subject.
De har tre barn och en katt.
They have three children and a cat.
Jag hade ingen aning om det.
I had no idea about it. hade + an abstract 'possession' (an idea).
Use 2: the perfect and pluperfect auxiliary — ALWAYS ha
This is the structural heavyweight. To build the perfect ("have done") you use har + supine; for the pluperfect ("had done") you use hade + supine. Crucially, Swedish uses ha for every verb — there is no split between a "have" auxiliary and a "be" auxiliary the way German and French split theirs. Even verbs of motion and change, which those languages put with "be," take ha in Swedish.
Jag har redan ätit, tack.
I've already eaten, thanks. har + supine = perfect.
Tåget hade redan gått när vi kom fram.
The train had already left when we got there. hade + supine = pluperfect — and note: gått ('gone') takes ha, not vara.
Hon har rest till Japan tre gånger.
She has travelled to Japan three times. A verb of motion (resa) — still ha, never *är rest.
Use 3: light-verb idioms — ha where English says "be"
A whole set of fixed expressions pairs ha with a noun to describe a state. English often expresses these very states with "be," which is exactly why they catch learners out: you must say ha rätt, not vara rätt.
Du har rätt, jag tänkte fel.
You're right, I got it wrong. ha rätt = 'be right' — literally 'have right'.
Förlåt, jag hade fel om tiden.
Sorry, I was wrong about the time. ha fel = 'be wrong'.
Jag har inte råd med en ny bil.
I can't afford a new car. ha råd (med) = 'be able to afford'.
Barnen hade jättekul på festen.
The kids had a great time at the party. ha kul = 'have fun'.
Hon har ont i magen.
She has a stomach ache / her stomach hurts. ha ont = 'be in pain', literally 'have pain'.
These are worth memorising as units: ha rätt (be right), ha fel (be wrong), ha råd (afford), ha kul (have fun), ha ont (be in pain/hurt), ha bråttom (be in a hurry).
A wrinkle: ha can drop out of subordinate clauses
In a subordinate clause, Swedish often omits the auxiliary ha before a supine, where English would never drop "have." The ha is understood; the supine alone carries the perfect meaning. This is standard, common in writing, and worth recognising so it does not confuse you.
Han sa att han (hade) glömt nycklarna.
He said he had forgotten the keys. In the att-clause the hade may simply drop: ...att han glömt nycklarna.
Om jag (hade) vetat det, hade jag stannat hemma.
If I had known that, I'd have stayed home. The first hade is routinely left out: Om jag vetat det...
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag är ätit. / Hon är kommit.
Incorrect — Swedish never builds the perfect with vara. The auxiliary is always ha.
✅ Jag har ätit. / Hon har kommit.
I have eaten. / She has come.
❌ Du är rätt.
Incorrect — 'be right' is ha rätt, not vara rätt.
✅ Du har rätt.
You're right.
❌ Jag är ont i huvudet.
Incorrect — pain is expressed with ha: ha ont.
✅ Jag har ont i huvudet.
I have a headache.
❌ Hon haver två bilar.
Incorrect — haver is archaic; the modern present is har.
✅ Hon har två bilar.
She has two cars.
❌ Vi hadde en bra dag.
Spelling — the past is hade with a single d.
✅ Vi hade en bra dag.
We had a good day.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Irregular High-Frequency Verbs (vara, ha, göra, veta)A1 — A handful of everyday verbs are fully irregular and must be learned one by one: vara (är/var/varit), ha (har/hade/haft), göra (gör/gjorde/gjort), veta (vet/visste/vetat), säga (säger/sade~sa/sagt), lägga (lägger/lade~la/lagt), bli (blir/blev/blivit). These seven carry a huge share of all speech, so learn them first — including the present (är, not *varar; vet, not *vetar) and the colloquial sa/la pasts that dominate spoken Swedish.
- The Perfect Tense (har + supine)A2 — The perfect (perfekt) is har + the SUPINE: har talat, har skrivit, har köpt. It covers present relevance, indefinite past time, life experiences and just-completed actions. Two facts spare English speakers grief: the auxiliary is ALWAYS ha — there's no 'be'-perfect for motion verbs as in German/French — and the supine is an invariable form distinct from the agreeing past participle.
- Light-Verb Constructions (ta, göra, ha, fatta)B2 — Swedish builds an enormous amount of everyday talk out of a few near-empty verbs plus a meaning-carrying noun: ta en promenad ('take a walk'), göra läxorna ('do the homework'), ha rätt ('be right'). This page teaches the four core frames — ta, göra, ha, fatta — and the rule of thumb that the noun, not the verb, holds the meaning, including the trap that 'be right/wrong' is ha rätt/fel, a have-construction where English uses 'be'.
- The Pluperfect (hade + supine)B1 — The pluperfect (pluskvamperfekt) is hade + supine — the 'past behind the past'. It marks an event already complete before another past event: När jag kom hade de redan ätit ('When I arrived they had already eaten'). It's the workhorse of narration and reported speech, mirrors the English past perfect, and — uniquely useful — doubles as the counterfactual past in conditionals: Om jag hade vetat det... ('If I had known that...').