Swedish verbs split into weak verbs (which form their past with a dental suffix — -ade, -de, -te) and strong verbs (which change their stem vowel instead — skriva → skrev, dricka → drack). Strong verbs are traditionally called Group 4. This page covers only their present tense — together with a small but indispensable set of irregular verbs (vara, ha, göra, and the modals) whose present is short and contracted. We leave the past and the supine for the strong-verb pages, because — as you'll see — the present is precisely the place where strong verbs disguise themselves.
Strong verbs: present is stem + -er
A strong verb forms its present by adding -er to its present stem, which is usually just the infinitive with the final -a removed:
| Infinitive | Present | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| skriva | skriver | write |
| dricka | dricker | drink |
| springa | springer | run |
| sjunga | sjunger | sing |
| bita | biter | bite |
| komma | kommer | come |
Jag skriver ett brev till min mormor varje månad.
I write a letter to my grandmother every month. skriva → skriver, the present stem unchanged plus -er.
Han dricker alldeles för mycket kaffe.
He drinks far too much coffee. dricka → dricker.
Vi sjunger i kören på torsdagar.
We sing in the choir on Thursdays. sjunga → sjunger.
Crucially, in the present the stem vowel does not change. skriver still has the i of skriva; dricker still has the i of dricka. The dramatic vowel shifts that make these verbs "strong" — skrev, drack — happen in the past, not here.
The present hides the strong verb
This is the single most important insight on the page, and it runs against English intuition. In English, an irregular verb usually announces itself somewhere in the present system or is at least learned as a unit (write / wrote / written). In Swedish the present tense of a strong verb looks completely regular — skriver is built exactly like a weak Group 2 present (köpa → köper, läsa → läser). Nothing about skriver tells you that its past is the wildly different skrev.
| Type | Infinitive | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak (Group 2) | köpa | köper | köpte |
| Weak (Group 2) | läsa | läser | läste |
| Strong (Group 4) | skriva | skriver | skrev |
| Strong (Group 4) | dricka | dricker | drack |
Look at the present column: köper, läser, skriver, dricker — four verbs that look identical in shape, two weak and two strong. You cannot tell them apart from the present. The difference only erupts in the past: köpte and läste keep the vowel and add a dental suffix, while skrev and drack throw the suffix away and change the vowel instead.
The practical consequence: when you meet a new verb, don't trust the present to tell you its class. You have to learn the principal parts — infinitive, present, past, supine — and the past is where the truth lives. This is why dictionaries and good vocabulary lists always give you skriva, skriver, skrev, skrivit, not just skriver.
The contracted irregulars
A separate, small group of extremely high-frequency verbs has a contracted present that you simply have to memorise. These are the verbs you'll use in almost every sentence, so the effort pays off immediately:
| Infinitive | Present | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| vara | är | be (am / is / are) |
| ha | har | have |
| göra | gör | do / make |
| se | ser | see |
| gå | går | go / walk |
| få | får | get / may / be allowed |
| veta | vet | know (a fact) |
| ge | ger | give |
The thing to notice: är and har and gör and vet are not built as stem + -er. Vara does not become varar; ha does not become haver (that's archaic); veta does not become vetar. They are short, worn-down forms — the everyday verbs erode the fastest. Är in particular is just two letters and bears no resemblance to its infinitive vara.
The bottom half of the table — ser (se), går (gå), får (få), ger (ge) — is a slightly different story. These aren't really "contracted" at all: their infinitives already end in a single stressed vowel, so their present is simply vowel + r, exactly like the Group 3 verbs (bo → bor). What makes them irregular is the rest of their paradigm — they are in fact strong verbs, with the tell-tale vowel change appearing in the past (se → såg, gå → gick, få → fick). So they belong here for the same reason all strong verbs do: the present hides the vowel change. Just memorise the short present now and meet the strong past on the strong-verb pages.
Jag är trött och jag har ont i huvudet.
I'm tired and I have a headache. är (vara) and har (ha) — the two most common verbs in the language, both contracted.
Vad gör du i helgen? — Jag vet inte än.
What are you doing this weekend? — I don't know yet. gör (göra) and vet (veta), both short irregular presents.
Hon ser dig inte härifrån, men hon går mot dig.
She can't see you from here, but she's walking towards you. ser (se) and går (gå).
Får jag fråga en sak? — Visst, ställ din fråga.
May I ask something? — Sure, go ahead. får (få) doubles as 'get' and 'may / be allowed'.
For full conjugation and usage of the two cornerstones, see vara (to be) and ha (to have).
The modals: ska, vill, kan, måste, får, bör
The modal verbs are their own irregular pocket. Their present forms don't follow the -er pattern either, and several have no infinitive you'll ever use day to day:
| Present | Meaning | Infinitive |
|---|---|---|
| kan | can / be able to | kunna |
| vill | want to | vilja |
| ska (skall) | shall / will / going to | — |
| måste | must / have to | — |
| bör | ought to / should | böra |
These are followed by a bare infinitive (no att): Jag kan simma, Jag vill gå hem. They are covered in depth on Modal Verbs; here, just register that their present is irregular and must be learned as a set.
Jag kan inte komma ikväll, men jag vill gärna träffas i morgon.
I can't come tonight, but I'd love to meet up tomorrow. kan and vill, each followed by a bare infinitive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag skrivde ett brev. (thinking 'skriver' is regular)
Incorrect — the regular-looking present skriver hides a STRONG verb; the past is skrev, not 'skrivde'.
✅ Jag skrev ett brev.
I wrote a letter. The present never warned you about the vowel change.
❌ Jag varar trött.
Incorrect — vara is contracted to är, not regularised to 'varar'.
✅ Jag är trött.
I'm tired.
❌ Vad görar du?
Incorrect — göra contracts to gör, not 'görar'.
✅ Vad gör du?
What are you doing?
❌ Jag vetar inte.
Incorrect — veta contracts to vet in the present.
✅ Jag vet inte.
I don't know.
❌ Jag kan att simma.
Incorrect — modals take a BARE infinitive, with no att.
✅ Jag kan simma.
I can swim.
Key Takeaways
- Strong (Group 4) verbs form the present with stem + -er (skriver, dricker, springer), and the stem vowel does not change here.
- The present disguises the strong verb: skriver is shaped exactly like the weak köper. The vowel change that defines the verb (skrev, drack) appears only in the past — so learn the past to know the class.
- A short set of contracted irregulars must be memorised: är (vara), har (ha), gör (göra), ser (se), går (gå), får (få), vet (veta), ger (ge). Don't regularise them into -er forms.
- The modals (kan, vill, ska, måste, bör) have irregular presents and take a bare infinitive with no att.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- 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.
- Present Tense: Group 2 (-er)A2 — Group 2 verbs are consonant-stem -a verbs that form the present by DROPPING the infinitive -a and adding -er (ringa → ringer, köpa → köper, läsa → läser). Stems already ending in -r add just -r or nothing (köra → kör, höra → hör). A built-in catch: the present alone can't tell you whether a Group 2 verb belongs to the -de or -te past subtype, so always record the past tense too.
- 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).
- 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.