The Swedish -s ending does three quite different jobs. It can mark the passive (byggas, "be built"); it can be a fixed part of a deponent verb (hoppas, "hope"); and — the topic of this page — it can mean "each other." When a verb with -s takes a plural subject, it very often expresses a reciprocal action: something the people in the subject do to one another. De kramas means "they hug each other." And because one of these reciprocal -s verbs is the single most common way Swedes say goodbye, you have almost certainly used the construction already.
The reciprocal -s: "to one another"
The logic is clean. Take a verb that normally takes an object — krama ("to hug someone"), träffa ("to meet someone"), se ("to see someone"). Add -s and a plural subject, and the object folds back into the subject: everyone in the group is both doer and receiver. Anna och Erik kramas = Anna hugs Erik and Erik hugs Anna, simultaneously, in one mutual act.
De kramades länge på perrongen.
They hugged (each other) for a long time on the platform. kramades = past; the hug is mutual.
Vi träffas på fredag, va?
We're meeting on Friday, right? träffas — the meeting is something we do with each other.
A reciprocal action takes at least two people, so a reciprocal -s verb needs a plural (or coordinated) subject: vi, de, Anna och Erik, grannarna. A singular subject cannot act reciprocally on its own — *jag ses is incomplete on its own (you'd need vi ses).
The common reciprocal s-verbs
| -s verb | Built from | Reciprocal meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ses | se (see) | see each other / meet |
| träffas | träffa (meet) | meet (one another) |
| höras | höra (hear) | be in touch / hear from each other |
| kramas | krama (hug) | hug each other |
| pussas / kyssas | pussa / kyssa (kiss) | kiss each other |
| slåss | slå (hit) | fight (one another) |
| möts | möta (meet) | meet / encounter each other |
| hjälpas åt | hjälpa (help) | help each other (with a task) |
Most of these are regular weak verbs that simply add -s to each form (kramas / kramades / kramats; kyssas / kysstes / kyssts). Two are irregular and worth memorising:
- slåss (fight): present slåss, past slogs, supine slagits. It is built on the strong verb slå (slå / slog / slagit), and the past slogs and supine slagits inherit that irregularity.
- ses (meet): present ses, past sågs, supine setts, from the strong verb se (se / såg / sett).
Pojkarna slogs om bollen på rasten.
The boys fought over the ball at break. slogs = past of slåss, from strong slå.
Ska vi hjälpas åt med disken?
Shall we do the dishes together (help each other with them)? hjälpas åt — the åt is part of the expression.
Vi ses! — the farewell that is secretly a reciprocal verb
This is the insight that makes the whole pattern worth learning. The everyday Swedish "see you!" is Vi ses! — literally "we see each other." It is a present-tense reciprocal -s verb, used with future meaning, and it is everywhere: end of a phone call, leaving a café, signing off a message.
Tack för idag — vi ses imorgon!
Thanks for today — see you tomorrow! Vi ses is a reciprocal s-verb used as the standard goodbye.
Hej då, vi hörs!
Bye, we'll be in touch! / talk soon! Vi hörs = the 'audio' twin of vi ses, also reciprocal.
Reciprocal -s vs varandra
Swedish has a second way to say "each other": the pronoun varandra. So De ses and De ser varandra overlap heavily — both mean "they see each other." The difference is one of compactness and nuance:
- The -s form is tighter and often more idiomatic for habitual or arranged mutual actions: Vi ses ofta ("we see each other often"), Vi ses imorgon ("see you tomorrow").
- varandra is more explicit and is required when you want to add information about how or in what relation: De tittade på varandra ("they looked at each other"), where titta på keeps its preposition.
Grannarna hjälper varandra med snöskottningen.
The neighbours help each other with the snow-shovelling. Here varandra spells out the mutual object explicitly.
Vi ses sällan numera.
We rarely see each other these days. The compact -s form, idiomatic for a habitual mutual action.
Not every verb works both ways equally well, and a few reciprocal -s verbs (slåss, träffas) are simply the default — you would normally say De träffades rather than the heavier De mötte varandra.
Why this trips up English speakers
English marks "each other" with a separate phrase and never folds it into the verb: they hug each other, we meet, they fight. So an English speaker reaching for "each other" in Swedish has two wrong instincts:
- Use a reflexive (sig). Learners borrow the reflexive and say *De kramar sig ("they hug themselves") for "they hug each other." But sig is reflexive (action on oneself), not reciprocal (action on one another). For mutual meaning you need the -s form kramas or the pronoun varandra — not bare sig.
- Not recognise Vi ses as a verb at all. Hearing Vi ses! as a frozen "bye" phrase, learners never connect it to se and so never generalise to vi hörs, vi träffas.
Vi pussades godnatt och släckte lampan.
We kissed (each other) goodnight and turned off the light. pussades = reciprocal past.
Common Mistakes
❌ De kramar sig när de träffas.
Incorrect for 'they hug each other' — 'kramar sig' means 'hug themselves'. Reciprocal needs -s.
✅ De kramas när de träffas.
They hug (each other) when they meet.
❌ Vi ser imorgon!
Incorrect — the reciprocal farewell needs the -s: it's 'see each other', not just 'see'.
✅ Vi ses imorgon!
See you tomorrow!
❌ Pojkarna slåssade om bollen.
Incorrect — slåss is irregular; the past is slogs, not a regular *slåssade.
✅ Pojkarna slogs om bollen.
The boys fought over the ball.
❌ Jag ses imorgon.
Incorrect — a reciprocal needs a plural subject; one person can't 'see each other'. Use 'vi ses'.
✅ Vi ses imorgon.
See you tomorrow (we'll see each other).
Key Takeaways
- A third job of -s: with a plural subject, it means "each other" — De kramas = they hug one another.
- Common reciprocals: ses, träffas, höras, kramas, pussas / kyssas, slåss, hjälpas åt. Watch the irregulars: slåss / slogs / slagits and ses / sågs / setts.
- It overlaps with varandra (De ses ≈ De ser varandra); the -s form is tighter and idiomatic for habitual/arranged mutual actions.
- The everyday goodbye Vi ses! ("see you!") is a reciprocal -s verb — and so are vi hörs, vi träffas. Naming the pattern makes it productive.
- Don't use the reflexive sig for "each other" (*kramar sig = "hug themselves") — that is the classic English-transfer error.
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- Reciprocal Pronouns (varandra)B1 — 'Each other / one another' is one tidy word in Swedish: varandra, with a genitive varandras ('each other's'). The crucial contrast English keeps but learners collapse: sig means 'themselves' (each acting on their own self) while varandra means 'each other' (acting mutually) — De älskar sig vs De älskar varandra are different statements. Swedish also has a second route to the same meaning: the reciprocal -s verbs like ses, träffas, slåss, kysstes.
- Deponent Verbs (s-verbs That Aren't Passive)B1 — A small but extremely common set of Swedish verbs that always end in -s yet mean something fully active: hoppas ('hope'), trivas ('feel at home'), lyckas ('succeed'), minnas ('remember'), andas ('breathe'), and — most importantly — finnas, the everyday verb for 'there is'. You never strip the -s, and you use one of these constantly without realising it forms a category.
- The -s PassiveB1 — The synthetic -s passive adds -s to the verb across all tenses (present läses/öppnas, past lästes/öppnades, supine har lästs/öppnats, infinitive ska läsas). It is the DEFAULT Swedish passive — the form on signs, rules, recipes and instructions (Dörren öppnas automatiskt; Serveras kallt) — far more frequent than English speakers expect.
- Greetings and FarewellsA1 — How Swedes actually say hello and goodbye. Hej is the universal, all-purpose greeting (formality is barely a factor), with casual variants tjena/tja and the time-of-day God morgon/dag/kväll. Goodbyes are richer than English 'bye': hej då, vi ses ('see you'), vi hörs ('talk to you'), ha det bra. And note the quirk — hej does double duty, serving as both 'hi' and the first half of 'bye' (hej då).