The infinitive is the base form of the verb — the form you find in a dictionary, the form before any tense or person has been added. In Swedish it is also the form that follows the little marker att ("to"), the equivalent of the to in English to speak, to read, to run. Two things make this topic worth its own page: the infinitive has a very predictable shape (it almost always ends in -a), and the marker att is pronounced exactly like the everyday word och ("and"), which causes a spelling confusion that follows Swedish speakers their whole lives.
What the infinitive looks like
The overwhelming majority of Swedish infinitives end in -a. This is the citation form — the one that goes in the dictionary and the one all the conjugation rules are built from.
tala, läsa, springa, arbeta, köpa, skriva
to speak, to read, to run, to work, to buy, to write — the typical infinitive ends in -a.
A small but very high-frequency group of verbs are monosyllabic and end in a different vowel instead of -a. These are some of the most common verbs in the language, so you meet them immediately:
| Infinitive | Meaning |
|---|---|
| gå | to go / to walk |
| se | to see |
| bo | to live (reside) |
| tro | to believe |
| må | to feel (in health) |
| få | to get / may |
| stå | to stand |
Jag vill gå hem nu och se på tv.
I want to go home now and watch TV. gå and se are vowel-stem infinitives — no -a ending.
De vill bo i stan men tro mig, det är dyrt.
They want to live in the city, but believe me, it's expensive. bo, tro — short vowel infinitives.
The infinitive marker att ("to")
When English uses to in front of a verb — to travel, to stop, to learn — Swedish uses att. This att is the infinitive marker, and it sits directly before the infinitive form.
Det är roligt att resa.
It is fun to travel. att + the infinitive resa, exactly mirroring English 'to travel'.
Jag försöker att sluta röka.
I'm trying to stop smoking. att marks the infinitive sluta after försöka ('try').
Det är svårt att lära sig ett nytt språk.
It is hard to learn a new language. att lära — the marker introduces the infinitive.
You will see att after many verbs (börja att, "begin to"; hoppas att, "hope to"), after adjectives in expressions like det är roligt att… ("it is fun to…"), and in purpose phrases. In all of these it is doing the same job as English to.
When att is left out
Here is a wrinkle English speakers should watch for: with some verbs att is commonly dropped, and after the modal verbs it is dropped obligatorily. After a modal — kan (can), vill (want), ska (shall/will), måste (must), får (may), bör (ought) — you use the bare infinitive with no att at all.
Jag kan simma.
I can swim. After the modal kan, the bare infinitive simma takes NO att.
Vi måste åka nu, annars missar vi tåget.
We have to leave now, otherwise we'll miss the train. måste + bare infinitive åka — no att.
Hon vill bli läkare.
She wants to become a doctor. vill + bli, bare infinitive, no att.
With ordinary (non-modal) verbs, att is often optional and very frequently dropped in speech: both Jag börjar att förstå and Jag börjar förstå ("I'm beginning to understand") are fine, the second being more natural in everyday talk. The modal rule, by contrast, is hard: inserting att there is simply wrong.
The att / och trap: both sound like "å"
This is the distinguishing fact of the page. The infinitive marker att is pronounced "å" in normal speech — a short o-like sound — and that is identical to how the conjunction och ("and") is pronounced. Two completely different words, two completely different jobs, one pronunciation. The spelling never matches the sound for either of them: att is not said "att," and och is not said "ock."
Because they sound the same, Swedish writers — children, adults, and learners alike — constantly write one when they mean the other. It is one of the most common native spelling errors in the language. As a learner you have an advantage here: if you fix the meaning in your head, you will outperform the sound-based guessing that trips up natives.
- att = "to" (before an infinitive verb) — Det är kul att dansa ("It's fun to dance").
- och = "and" (joining two things) — kaffe och kakor ("coffee and cookies").
Jag älskar att laga mat och att baka bröd.
I love to cook and to bake bread. att laga (infinitive marker 'to'), then och (the conjunction 'and'), then att baka again — all three sound like 'å'.
Det är viktigt att äta och att sova ordentligt.
It is important to eat and to sleep properly. The first and third 'å'-sounds are att (to + infinitive); the middle one is och (and).
The reliable test: try replacing the word with "and". If "and" fits, it is och. If the word is introducing a to + verb idea, it is att.
Hon lovade att komma och att hjälpa till.
She promised to come and to help out. att komma = 'to come', och = 'and', att hjälpa = 'to help' — same sound, decided by meaning.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag kan att simma.
Incorrect — no att after a modal verb. Modals take the bare infinitive.
✅ Jag kan simma.
I can swim.
❌ Hon vill att resa till Spanien.
Incorrect — vill is a modal, so the infinitive resa stands alone with no att.
✅ Hon vill resa till Spanien.
She wants to travel to Spain.
❌ Jag gillar kaffe att te. (meaning 'coffee and tea')
Incorrect — this is the conjunction 'and', so it must be och, not att. (Both are pronounced 'å'.)
✅ Jag gillar kaffe och te.
I like coffee and tea.
❌ Det är roligt och resa. (meaning 'fun to travel')
Incorrect — this introduces an infinitive ('to travel'), so it must be att, not och.
✅ Det är roligt att resa.
It is fun to travel.
❌ Jag vill gåa hem. / Jag vill sea filmen.
Incorrect — gå and se are vowel-stem infinitives; you never add -a to them.
✅ Jag vill gå hem. / Jag vill se filmen.
I want to go home. / I want to see the film.
Key Takeaways
- The infinitive is the base form: almost always -a (tala, läsa, köpa), with a small set of high-frequency vowel infinitives (gå, se, bo, tro, må, få, stå) that never take -a.
- att before an infinitive = English to (att resa = "to travel").
- After a modal (kan, vill, ska, måste, får, bör), drop att and use the bare infinitive (Jag kan simma, never kan att simma). After ordinary verbs, att is often optional and dropped in speech.
- att (the marker) and och ("and") are both pronounced "å" — the classic Swedish spelling trap. Decide by meaning: if "and" fits, write och; if a to + verb idea fits, write att.
Related Topics
- Swedish Verbs: OverviewA1 — The single best piece of news in Swedish grammar: verbs do NOT conjugate for person or number. One present-tense form serves every subject — jag talar, du talar, han talar, vi talar, de talar — so there's no '-s for he/she' to remember. With agreement gone, the whole verb system collapses to TENSE plus four conjugation groups. This page maps that system and routes you to each piece: present, past, the supine + har perfect, the ska/kommer att future, the -s passive, and the imperative.
- att-ClausesB1 — att is the complementizer 'that' — the word that turns a clause into the object or subject of a verb (Jag vet att han kommer). Like English 'that', it can be dropped after common verbs of saying and thinking (Jag tror (att) han sover), but the subordinate BIFF order STAYS even when att disappears. Inside an att-clause 'inte' sits before the verb. Keep att (complementizer) firmly distinct from och (and) and from infinitive-marker att.
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The Swedish modal verbs — kan, vill, ska, måste, får, bör, lär, må — all share one liberating syntax: they take a BARE infinitive with NO att (Jag kan simma, not *Jag kan att simma), and like all Swedish verbs they never agree for person. Learn one present form and you can build every modal sentence. This page maps the whole set and warns you that several modals (få, ska, må) are heavily polysemous.
- och vs att (the 'å' Confusion)A2 — In speech, both 'och' (and) and 'att' (to / that) are pronounced like the vowel 'å' — so even native Swedes mix them up in writing. The fix is grammatical, not phonetic: 'och' joins two equal things ('and'), while 'att' either introduces an infinitive ('to') or opens a subordinate clause ('that'). Replace the word with 'and' to test — if it works, write 'och'.