skicka means "to send" — a message, a parcel, an email, a link. It is a regular Group 1 verb, so the forms are predictable; the things to learn are its ditransitive pattern (you send someone something) and a handful of very common particle verbs.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| skicka | skickar | skickade | skickat | skicka | Group 1 |
Regular throughout: present -r → skickar, past -ade → skickade, supine -at → skickat, imperative the bare stem (Skicka! "Send!"). The -ck- after the short i is a spelling convention — Swedish writes ck, not kk, after a short vowel — and it stays in every form (skickade, never skicade). Note the pronunciation: because the sk- sits before the front vowel i, it takes the soft sj-sound (roughly "shicka"), not a hard s + k. That is the regular rule — sk- is hard only before the back vowels a, o, u, å (as in skola).
Use 1: sending things and messages
The basic use is "send" with a direct object — a text, an email, a parcel, a greeting. The recipient is added with till ("to") when you don't use the ditransitive pattern.
Jag skickar ett meddelande så fort jag vet något.
I'll send a message as soon as I know anything. present skickar covers the English future 'will send'.
Hon skickade paketet i fredags.
She sent the parcel last Friday. skickade — the regular Group 1 past.
Har du skickat mejlet till kunden?
Have you sent the email to the customer? har skickat — perfect; recipient with till.
Use 2: skicka mig adressen — the ditransitive
skicka is ditransitive: it takes two objects, the recipient first and the thing second, with no preposition between them. Skicka mig adressen ("Send me the address") is far more natural than the till-version in everyday speech, especially as a request.
Kan du skicka mig adressen?
Can you send me the address? skicka + mig (recipient) + adressen (thing), no till.
Skicka henne en bild när du kommer fram!
Send her a photo when you get there! imperative Skicka + henne + en bild.
Jag skickade honom alla detaljerna igår.
I sent him all the details yesterday. skickade + honom + detaljerna — person first, thing second.
Use 3: particle verbs — iväg, efter, vidare
skicka combines with particles to make several high-frequency verbs. skicka iväg = "send off / dispatch"; skicka efter = "send for / order" (someone or something to come); skicka vidare = "forward / pass on".
Jag har redan skickat iväg ansökan.
I've already sent off the application. skicka iväg = dispatch, get it on its way.
Vi fick skicka efter en tekniker.
We had to send for a technician. skicka efter = send for someone to come.
Kan du skicka vidare det här mejlet till Anna?
Can you forward this email to Anna? skicka vidare = forward / pass on.
Glöm inte att skicka iväg räkningen innan månadsskiftet.
Don't forget to send off the invoice before the end of the month. skicka iväg in an att-infinitive after glömma.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag skicker paketet imorgon.
Incorrect — skicka is Group 1, so the present is skickar (-ar), not *skicker (-er).
✅ Jag skickar paketet imorgon.
I'll send the parcel tomorrow.
❌ Skicka adressen mig.
Wrong order — in the ditransitive the person comes first: skicka mig adressen, not *skicka adressen mig.
✅ Skicka mig adressen.
Send me the address.
❌ Hon skickde brevet.
Incorrect — Group 1 takes the full -ade: skickade, not *skickde.
✅ Hon skickade brevet.
She sent the letter.
❌ Har du skicka mejlet?
Incorrect — after har you need the supine: har skickat, not the infinitive *har skicka.
✅ Har du skickat mejlet?
Have you sent the email?
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.