A small number of Swedish verbs are so common that they have worn down into their own irregular shapes — and because you cannot speak a single sentence without them, they are the very first verbs to learn cold. This page gathers the seven workhorses: vara ("be"), ha ("have"), göra ("do/make"), veta ("know"), säga ("say"), lägga ("lay/put"), and bli ("become"). Each is listed in three forms — present / past / supine — and the point is to memorise these forms directly, the way you learned English am/was/been without analysing it. Don't try to derive them from rules; just learn them, and use them everywhere.
The two most important verbs: vara and ha
Nothing in Swedish is more common than "be" and "have." Learn these two first and you can already build most basic sentences.
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vara | är | var | varit | be |
| ha | har | hade | haft | have |
The present of vara is är — not varar. It is pronounced like "air" (the v is silent in this form), and it is the same word whether the subject is jag, du, hon, or vi: Swedish verbs don't change for person. The present of ha is har for everyone too.
Jag är trött och du är hungrig.
I'm tired and you're hungry. är is the present of vara — one form for all subjects.
Hon har två barn och en hund.
She has two children and a dog. har — present of ha.
Vi var i Spanien förra året; vi har aldrig varit i Italien.
We were in Spain last year; we've never been to Italy. var (past) and varit (supine) of vara.
göra and veta
Two more everyday verbs with irregular shapes — and a spelling quirk to watch.
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| göra | gör | gjorde | gjort | do / make |
| veta | vet | visste | vetat | know (a fact) |
In göra, the past and supine are spelled with a silent gj-: gjorde, gjort. The g is not pronounced (you say "yorde", "yort"), but it must be written — leaving it out is a spelling error. veta has present vet (not vetar) and a past visste with a doubled s.
Vad gör du? — Inget särskilt.
What are you doing? — Nothing special. gör is the present of göra.
Vi gjorde det tillsammans.
We did it together. gjorde — past with the silent gj-.
Jag visste inte att du var här.
I didn't know you were here. visste — irregular past of veta, with double s.
säga, lägga, bli — and the spoken short forms
These three are common too. Two of them, säga and lägga, have a written past and a shorter spoken past that dominates everyday speech.
| Infinitive | Present | Past (written) | Past (spoken) | Supine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| säga | säger | sade | sa | sagt | say |
| lägga | lägger | lade | la | lagt | lay / put |
| bli | blir | blev | — | blivit | become / get |
For säga and lägga, the full forms sade and lade are (formal/written), while sa and la are (informal) and are what you'll actually hear almost all the time in conversation. Both are completely standard — sa and la are not slang or sloppy; they're simply the spoken norm. bli ("become") is regular within the strong system: bli → blev → blivit, like write → wrote → written.
Hon sa att hon kommer imorgon.
She said she's coming tomorrow. sa — the everyday spoken past of säga (written: sade).
Var la du nycklarna?
Where did you put the keys? la — spoken past of lägga (written: lade).
Det blev kallt på kvällen.
It got cold in the evening. blev — past of bli.
Why learn these seven first
These verbs sit at the very top of every Swedish frequency list. Vara and ha alone appear in a huge fraction of all sentences — ha doubles as the helper that builds the perfect tense (har varit, har gjort), and bli builds passives and changes of state. Because they recur constantly, the effort of memorising their odd forms pays back immediately and they drill themselves in through sheer repetition. Learn them as fixed little sets — är, var, varit / har, hade, haft / gör, gjorde, gjort — and almost every basic sentence is within reach.
Jag har gjort läxorna och nu är jag ledig.
I've done my homework and now I'm free. har gjort (perfect) + är — three of these verbs in one short sentence.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag varar hemma idag.
Incorrect — the present of vara is är, not *varar.
✅ Jag är hemma idag.
I'm at home today.
❌ Jag vetar inte.
Incorrect — the present of veta is vet, not *vetar.
✅ Jag vet inte.
I don't know.
❌ Vi gorde det igår.
Incorrect — the past of göra is gjorde, written with the silent gj-.
✅ Vi gjorde det igår.
We did it yesterday.
❌ Hon haver en bil. / Hon havde en bil.
Incorrect — ha is irregular: present har, past hade. (haver is archaic.)
✅ Hon har en bil. / Hon hade en bil.
She has a car. / She had a car.
❌ Han sägde att han kommer.
Incorrect — the past of säga is sade (written) or sa (spoken), never *sägde.
✅ Han sa att han kommer.
He said he's coming.
Key Takeaways
- Learn these seven as fixed three-form sets: vara (är/var/varit), ha (har/hade/haft), göra (gör/gjorde/gjort), veta (vet/visste/vetat), säga (säger/sade~sa/sagt), lägga (lägger/lade~la/lagt), bli (blir/blev/blivit).
- The present forms are the classic traps: är (not varar) and vet (not vetar).
- göra is spelled with a silent gj- in the past and supine (gjorde, gjort); veta has a double-s past (visste).
- säga and lägga have full written pasts (sade, lade) and short spoken pasts (sa, la) — the short forms are standard and dominate speech.
- These verbs are the most frequent in the language, so learning them first unlocks most basic sentences — and ha and bli also build the perfect tense and passives.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- vara (to be)A1 — The verb vara means 'to be' — but its present is the irregular är (not *varar), and Swedish uses it more narrowly than English: vara is for identity and description, while objects sitting somewhere take ligga, stå or sitta instead.
- ha (to have)A1 — The verb ha means 'to have' — possession, but also the sole auxiliary that builds every perfect tense (har/hade + supine, never vara) and the light verb behind state idioms English expresses with 'be': ha rätt (be right), ha ont (be in pain), ha råd (afford).
- göra (to do, make)A1 — The verb göra means 'to do / make' — note the silent gj- in gjorde/gjort. Beyond do/make, gör is the pro-verb in echo answers (Ja, det gör jag = 'yes I do'), the only auxiliary-like use of 'do' in Swedish — there is no do-support in questions or negation.
- Strong Verbs: Overview and Principal PartsB1 — Strong verbs (Group 4) don't add a past-tense ending — they change their stem vowel across three principal parts: skriva–skrev–skrivit. The vowel moves in recurring patterns (ablaut) that Swedish shares with English: i–a–u is the same machinery as sing–sang–sung. This page teaches you to read principal parts, recognise the classes, and leverage the English cognate vowels so memorisation becomes pattern-recognition.
- Spoken Reductions (dom, nån, sån, va)A2 — The single most important listening skill in Swedish: real speech is full of reduced forms that the written language hides. 'De' and 'dem' are both said 'dom'; 'någon' becomes 'nån', 'sådan' becomes 'sån', 'mig/dig/sig' become 'mej/dej/sej', 'sade' becomes 'sa', and both 'och' and 'att' shrink to a tiny 'å'. These are not regional or sloppy — they are how all Swedes speak — so the tidy written forms you learned are essentially never heard out loud.