The i – e – i class is the friendliest strong pattern to learn, because the vowel returns home: the infinitive has i, the past changes to e, and the supine swings back to i. skriva → skrev → skrivit. Only one vowel grade to remember beyond the infinitive, and it sits squarely on top of an English class you already own — write/wrote/written, bite/bit/bitten, ride/rode/ridden. This page drills the pattern, lists the high-frequency members with their English cognates, and shows the two errors English speakers make.
The shape: i in front, e in the past, i in the supine
Every verb in this class follows the identical vowel path. The past is a bare one-syllable stem with e; the supine adds -it to a stem with i restored:
| Infinitive (i) | Past (e) | Supine (i + -it) | Meaning | English cognate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| skriva | skrev | skrivit | write | write / wrote / written |
| bita | bet | bitit | bite | bite / bit / bitten |
| gripa | grep | gripit | grab / seize | grip / gripped |
| stiga | steg | stigit | rise / step | (sty, "climb", archaic) |
| rida | red | ridit | ride | ride / rode / ridden |
| skina | sken | skinit | shine | shine / shone |
| bli(va) | blev | blivit | become | (no cognate) |
The present tense is built from the infinitive, so it keeps the i: skriver, biter, griper, stiger, rider, skiner, blir. Only the past tense breaks to e.
Hon skriver dagbok varje kväll, men igår skrev hon inget.
She writes in a diary every evening, but yesterday she wrote nothing. Present skriver (i) vs past skrev (e).
Hunden bet brevbäraren, fast den aldrig har bitit någon förut.
The dog bit the postman, even though it has never bitten anyone before. bita → bet → bitit.
Why the cognates line up so well
English and Swedish inherited these verbs from the same Proto-Germanic ancestor, and this particular class preserved its shape remarkably faithfully on both sides. English split it slightly — some members went i/o/i (ride/rode/ridden, write/wrote/written) and others i/i/i (bite/bit/bitten) — but the supine/participle stays at i in both languages, and that is the part learners most need help with. When you see Swedish ridit, English ridden tells you the supine vowel is right; when you see bitit, English bitten confirms it.
The practical move: read the Swedish past off the English past with a vowel shift to e. English wrote, rode, shone all correspond to Swedish skrev, red, sken — the English vowel is o-ish, the Swedish is e, but the verb is unmistakably the same. Then for the supine, both languages agree on i. This three-step check — is it cognate? → Swedish past is e → Swedish supine is i — lets you reconstruct a form you've half-forgotten instead of guessing wildly, and it catches your mistakes before they reach the page. The only members without a transparent English cognate are stiga ("rise/step") and bli ("become"); for those two you simply learn the triple, but they obey the same i–e–i shape as the rest.
Solen sken hela dagen, men nu har det börjat regna.
The sun shone all day, but now it's started to rain. sken — past with e (English 'shone').
Vi red längs stranden tills hästarna blev trötta.
We rode along the beach until the horses got tired. red (rode) and blev (became) — two i–e–i pasts in one sentence.
Watch the consonant doubling and spelling
A small orthographic point: when the past is a one-syllable stem ending in a single consonant after the e, the spelling stays single (skrev, bet, grep, steg, red, sken, blev) — Swedish does not double the consonant in these monosyllabic strong pasts. The infinitive often has a single intervocalic consonant too (skriva, bita, rida), and the supine keeps it single before -it (skrivit, bitit, ridit). So there is no skrivv-, no bitt- in this class. Get the vowel right and the spelling tends to follow.
Aktien har stigit kraftigt sedan vi köpte den i januari.
The share has risen sharply since we bought it in January. stigit — single consonant, vowel i.
Vad har hänt? Du blev alldeles blek.
What happened? You went completely pale. blev — past of bli, the most common i–e–i verb of all.
Note: bli is the everyday star of this class
By far the most frequent member is bli ("become / get / turn out"), whose principal parts are bli – blev – blivit (the older full infinitive bliva is now (literary/archaic)). You will use blev and har blivit constantly — for changes of state, passives, and "turned out." It behaves exactly like the class: present blir, past blev, supine blivit.
Det blev sent, så vi har blivit kvar över natten.
It got late, so we've ended up staying overnight. blev / blivit — the workhorse of the i–e–i class.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag skrivade ner adressen.
Incorrect — skriva is strong; there is no -ade. The past is skrev.
✅ Jag skrev ner adressen.
I wrote down the address.
❌ Hon har skrev tre böcker.
Incorrect — that's the past form. After 'har' you need the supine: skrivit.
✅ Hon har skrivit tre böcker.
She has written three books.
❌ Vi ridit längs stranden igår.
Incorrect — a standalone past is red (rode); ridit only appears after ha.
✅ Vi red längs stranden igår.
We rode along the beach yesterday.
❌ Det blivde sent. / Det blivit sent (standalone).
Incorrect — past of bli is blev (not *blivde); blivit only after har/hade.
✅ Det blev sent.
It got late.
Key Takeaways
- i – e – i: infinitive i, past e, supine i
- -it — skriva/skrev/skrivit, bita/bet/bitit, stiga/steg/stigit, rida/red/ridit, skina/sken/skinit.
- The present keeps the infinitive's i (skriver, biter, rider); only the past breaks to e.
- This is English's write/wrote/written, bite/bit/bitten, ride/rode/ridden class — the supine vowel i matches the English participle, so use the cognate as a check.
- bli – blev – blivit ("become") is the highest-frequency member; you'll use blev and har blivit daily.
- Never regularise (skrivade) and never reuse the past e in the supine — the supine vowel is always i.
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.
- 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).
- Supine: Strong Verbs (-it)B1 — Strong verbs form their supine in -it on a stem whose vowel can differ from BOTH the infinitive and the past tense — skriva / skrev / skrivit, dricka / drack / druckit, sjunga / sjöng / sjungit. So a strong verb has THREE vowel grades, and the supine vowel must be memorised as its own principal part. Don't reuse the past-tense vowel, and don't confuse the supine -it with the participle -en (skrivit vs. skriven).