vinna is the Swedish verb "to win," and it is the cleanest member of the i–a–u strong class: vinna – vann – vunnit. The pattern lines up neatly with English win – won, and the supine vunnit echoes the -un- you hear in old English won/(y)wonnen. A useful contrast comes from its opposite: vinna is strong and changes its vowel, but förlora ("to lose") is a perfectly regular Group 1 verb that just adds -ade. So "win and lose" — a natural pair in meaning — behave like total opposites in grammar too.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vinna | vinner | vann | vunnit | vinn | Group 4 (strong), i–a–u |
Read the vowels across the row: the infinitive and present keep i (vinna, vinner), the past changes to a (vann, with a doubled nn), and the supine moves to u (vunnit). That is the whole i–a–u pattern, shared with verbs like finna – fann – funnit (find) and binda – band – bundit (tie). The agreeing past participle is vunnen (en-word), vunnet (ett-word), vunna (plural/definite) — you meet it most in the bli-passive: en vunnen match (a won match). The imperative is the bare stem vinn.
Om vi vinner ikväll går vi till final.
If we win tonight, we go to the final. vinner — present, vowel i.
Sverige vann matchen i sista minuten.
Sweden won the match in the last minute. vann — past, vowel a, doubled nn.
Hon har vunnit tre guldmedaljer i rad.
She's won three gold medals in a row. har vunnit — perfect, supine vowel u.
Use 1: present, past and perfect
The three tenses follow the principal parts directly. The present vinner covers both "win" and "am winning." The past vann is a bare vowel-changed stem with a doubled consonant. The perfect is har vunnit, the pluperfect hade vunnit.
Vem vinner valet, tror du?
Who's going to win the election, do you think? vinner — present, future meaning.
De vann en resa till Italien i tävlingen.
They won a trip to Italy in the contest. vann — past.
Vi hade redan vunnit innan domaren blåste av.
We had already won before the referee blew the whistle. hade vunnit — pluperfect.
Use 2: the opposite — förlora ('to lose')
The natural antonym of vinna is förlora, and it is a textbook reminder that meaning and grammar are independent. förlora is a regular Group 1 verb: förlora – förlorade – förlorat. No vowel change, no surprises — it just takes -ade in the past and -at in the supine, exactly like prata (talk) or titta (look). So whenever you reach for the pair, you switch conjugation classes mid-sentence.
Vi vann första halvlek men förlorade matchen.
We won the first half but lost the match. vann (strong) next to förlorade (regular -ade) — opposite verbs, opposite conjugations.
Laget har vunnit hemma men förlorat borta.
The team has won at home but lost away. har vunnit (supine -it) vs har förlorat (supine -at).
There is also a productive figurative side to vinna: you vinna tid (buy/gain time), vinna mark (gain ground), vinna gehör (win acceptance for an idea) and vinna i längden (come out ahead in the long run). In all of these the verb keeps its strong forms — vann tid, har vunnit mark — so the conjugation never relaxes just because the meaning is abstract.
Vi försökte vinna tid genom att ställa fler frågor.
We tried to buy time by asking more questions. vinna tid = gain/buy time — figurative, still strong.
Use 3: vinna över and the bli-passive
vinna över means "to beat" a specific opponent — you vinner över the other team. And because vinna has a full participle, it forms a natural bli-passive: matchen blev vunnen ("the match was won"). The bli-passive emphasises the event/change, while a plain vinna states the action. English speakers should note that Swedish strongly prefers the bli-passive (change of state) over the vara-passive here when reporting a result, so matchen blev vunnen sounds far more natural for "the match was won" than the static var vunnen, which leans toward "was (already) won."
Vi vann över dem med tre mål.
We beat them by three goals. vinna över = beat (an opponent).
Matchen blev vunnen på straffar.
The match was won on penalties. bli-passive: blev + the agreeing participle vunnen.
Striden var vunnen redan innan den började.
The battle was won before it even began. var + vunnen — a stative passive, the agreeing participle.
Common Mistakes
❌ Sverige vinnade matchen.
Incorrect — vinna is strong and takes no -ade ending. The past is the vowel-changed vann.
✅ Sverige vann matchen.
Sweden won the match.
❌ Vi har vann.
Wrong — after har you need the supine vunnit, not the past vann.
✅ Vi har vunnit.
We've won.
❌ Vi vann men de förlorde.
Wrong — förlora is regular Group 1, so the past is förlorade (with -ade), not 'förlorde'.
✅ Vi vann men de förlorade.
We won but they lost.
❌ En vunnit match.
Wrong form — as an adjective you need the agreeing participle vunnen (en-word), not the supine vunnit.
✅ En vunnen match.
A won match.
❌ Vi vann dem med tre mål. (intending 'beat them')
Off — to 'beat an opponent' you need the particle: vinna ÖVER dem. Plain vinna takes the prize/match as object, not the rival.
✅ Vi vann över dem med tre mål.
We beat them by three goals.
Now practice Swedish
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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 – a – u (dricka, finna)B1 — The classic Germanic class: infinitive i, past a, supine u (or o) — dricka/drack/druckit, finna/fann/funnit, binda/band/bundit, vinna/vann/vunnit, springa/sprang/sprungit, brinna/brann/brunnit. This is English drink/drank/drunk and find/found/found, so the supine's u matches the English participle. The killer error is reusing the past vowel a in the supine (*har drack).
- The bli-PassiveB1 — The periphrastic bli-passive — bli + an agreeing past participle (Han blev vald; Bilen blev stulen) — marks a DYNAMIC event or change of state ('got/became X-ed'). It takes the agent with av (biten av en hund). Because it mirrors English 'be/get + participle' it gets overused: for habitual or general statements the -s passive is the idiomatic choice.