jobba means "to work" — and it is the word real Swedes actually use. Where arbeta is neutral and a touch formal, jobba is the relaxed everyday verb you'll hear constantly in conversation. It came into Swedish as a loanword (related to English "job") and, like all loans, it slotted straight into the fully regular Group 1 class. If you learn only one "work" verb for speaking, learn this one.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jobba | jobbar | jobbade | jobbat | jobba | Group 1 |
The familiar Group 1 pattern: present jobba + r = jobbar; past jobbade; supine jobbat (after har); imperative Jobba!. No stem change, no agreement: jag jobbar, du jobbar, de jobbar are all the same.
Use 1: to work
Used alone, jobba means "to work" — to have a job, to put in effort, to be employed.
Jag jobbar hemifrån på fredagar.
I work from home on Fridays. jobbar — plain present, no -s for the third person either.
Hon jobbade extra hela december.
She worked extra all of December. jobbade — the regular Group 1 past.
Jag har jobbat här sedan i våras.
I've worked here since spring. har jobbat — perfect, supine jobbat.
Use 2: jobba med / på — work with / on
Like arbeta, jobba takes med for the field or task you work with, and på for a specific thing you're working on (or a place). jobba med is also how you ask someone's profession.
Vad jobbar du med?
What do you do for a living? Literally 'what do you work with?' — the everyday way to ask someone's job.
Han jobbar med IT på ett stort företag.
He works in IT at a big company. jobba med + field.
Jag jobbar på en lösning, ge mig en stund.
I'm working on a solution, give me a moment. jobba på + the thing you're working on.
Use 3: jobba över — work overtime
A handy fixed combination: jobba över means "to work overtime." The particle över ("over") carries the "extra hours" meaning.
Jag måste jobba över ikväll igen.
I have to work overtime again tonight. jobba över — the standard phrase for overtime.
Hon jobbade över hela veckan inför deadline.
She worked overtime all week before the deadline. jobbade över — past tense of the phrase.
The spoken clipping: jobba(de) → jobba
Here is the thing to listen for. In casual speech, the Group 1 past -ade is routinely clipped to just -a, so jobbade is normally pronounced jobba — identical to the infinitive and present-stem. Han jobba igår sounds like an infinitive but means han jobbade igår ("he worked yesterday"). You recognise it as past tense from the time word (igår) and context, not from the ending. In writing, always keep the full -ade: jobbade.
Han jobba sent igår. (informal speech)
He worked late yesterday. (informal) The clipped 'jobba' = jobbade; igår signals the past.
jobba vs arbeta
Same meaning, different register: jobba is informal and dominant in speech; arbeta is neutral-to-formal and the one you'll write. In conversation, jobba is almost always the natural choice. Both are Group 1.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag jobbar till ett företag.
Incorrect — you work AT a place with på (or for a company with på/hos), not till: jobba på ett företag.
✅ Jag jobbar på ett företag.
I work at a company.
❌ Vad jobbar du på? (asking someone's job)
Off — to ask someone's profession, use jobba MED: Vad jobbar du med? (jobba på = work on a specific task).
✅ Vad jobbar du med?
What do you do for a living?
❌ Jag jobber hemifrån. (Group 2 ending)
Incorrect — jobba is Group 1, present jobbar (-ar), not *jobber.
✅ Jag jobbar hemifrån.
I work from home.
❌ Jag jobba igår. (written)
Off in writing — the clipped 'jobba' is spoken only; in writing use the full past jobbade.
✅ Jag jobbade igår.
I worked yesterday.
Now practice Swedish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
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.