trycka carries two everyday meanings that English splits into separate words: "to press / push" (a button, a doorbell) and "to print" (a book, a newspaper). One Swedish verb covers both, and the connection is the original sense — trycka is literally to apply pressure, and a printing press works by pressing inked type onto paper. Keep both senses in mind and the verb becomes easy to use.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| trycka | trycker | tryckte | tryckt | tryck | Group 2 (-te) |
trycka is a Group 2 verb, and within Group 2 it takes the voiceless -te past, not -de. The reason is the sound right before the ending: the stem ends in ck, which is voiceless (a hard /k/ sound), and a voiceless stem pulls a voiceless -te. So the past is tryckte and the supine is tryckt — never tryckde. The present is the stem plus -er (tryck- → trycker), and the imperative is the bare stem tryck (Tryck här! "Press here!"). This -te rule is the same one that governs köpa → köpte and läsa → läste: voiceless consonant, voiceless ending.
Use 1: press / push a button
The most frequent sense is physical: pressing a button, a key, a doorbell. Swedish says trycka på — you press on something.
Tryck på knappen så öppnas dörren.
Press the button and the door opens. tryck på + the thing you press on — note the på.
Jag tryckte på fel knapp i hissen.
I pressed the wrong button in the lift. tryckte — the voiceless -te past.
Du måste trycka hårdare, annars händer inget.
You have to press harder, otherwise nothing happens.
Har du tryckt på enter?
Have you pressed enter? har tryckt — the perfect, supine tryckt.
Use 2: trycka ner — push down
With the particle ner ("down"), trycka ner means to push something down — a lever, a key held down, or figuratively a person.
Tryck ner handtaget och dra.
Push the handle down and pull.
Han kände sig nertryckt efter mötet. (figurative)
He felt put down / dejected after the meeting. (figurative) The past participle nertryckt = 'pushed down', here emotionally.
Use 3: trycka = to print
The second core sense is "to print." A publisher trycker a book; a press trycker a newspaper. This is fully standard, not a metaphor.
Boken trycktes i tiotusen exemplar.
The book was printed in ten thousand copies. trycktes — the past passive, '-s' on tryckte.
De trycker tidningen på natten.
They print the newspaper at night.
Affischen är tryckt på tjockt papper.
The poster is printed on thick paper. tryckt — supine/participle, here as a passive 'is printed'.
The family: ett tryck and uttrycka
Two related words are worth knowing. The noun ett tryck means "pressure" or "a print" (an art print, ett tryck på väggen). And the prefixed verb uttrycka ("to express") is built directly on trycka — to ex-press is literally to press out, ut-trycka. It conjugates the same way: uttrycker, uttryckte, uttryckt.
Jag vet inte hur jag ska uttrycka mig.
I don't know how to express myself. uttrycka mig — the reflexive 'express oneself', same -te pattern as trycka.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag tryckde på knappen.
Incorrect — the stem ends in voiceless ck, so the past is tryckte, not *tryckde.
✅ Jag tryckte på knappen.
I pressed the button.
❌ Tryck knappen.
Incomplete — you press ON something: trycka på knappen, with på.
✅ Tryck på knappen.
Press the button.
❌ Jag trycker svenska på tangentbordet. (wrong word)
Off — to 'type', Swedish uses skriva, not trycka. trycka is to press a single button, not to type text.
✅ Jag skriver på tangentbordet.
I type on the keyboard.
❌ Boken är printad. (English loan)
Off — the natural Swedish for a printed book is tryckt; printa exists for desktop printing but tryckt is standard for publishing.
✅ Boken är tryckt.
The book is printed.
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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.