Group 3 is the small class of short verbs whose stem ends in a stressed vowel — bo ("live"), tro ("believe"), sy ("sew"), klä ("dress"). Their supine, the form after ha, adds a doubled -tt: bo → bott, tro → trott, sy → sytt, klä → klätt. The doubled t looks like an oddity until you see what it is doing — it is the short-vowel spelling rule at work, the same rule that gives Group 3 its past in -dde. Once you connect -tt (supine) to -dde (past), the whole class clicks into a single consistent pattern.
The rule: vowel-final stem + -tt
A Group 3 verb's stem is the infinitive minus nothing useful to strip — the verb is already short and ends in its stressed vowel. To form the supine, add -tt directly to that vowel:
| Infinitive | Present (-r) | Past (-dde) | Supine (-tt) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bo | bor | bodde | bott | live / dwell |
| tro | tror | trodde | trott | believe |
| sy | syr | sydde | sytt | sew |
| klä | klär | klädde | klätt | dress / clothe |
| nå | når | nådde | nått | reach |
| bre | brer | bredde | brett | spread (butter etc.) |
Jag har bott här i tre år nu.
I've lived here for three years now. bo → bott — the model Group 3 supine.
Vi har alltid trott på dig.
We've always believed in you. tro → trott.
Hon har sytt klänningen själv.
She's sewn the dress herself. sy → sytt.
Har du nått fram till stationen än?
Have you reached the station yet? nå → nått.
Why the t is doubled: the short-vowel rule
The doubled t is the part that surprises people, and it has a clean explanation. Swedish spelling signals vowel length through the following consonant: a single consonant after a vowel usually marks a long vowel, while a doubled consonant marks a short one. (This is the same rule that gives you vit "white" with a long i but vitt with a short one — see Double Consonants.)
In a Group 3 verb, the stem vowel is long when the verb stands alone (bo, with a long o; bor with a long o). But in the supine, the vowel shortens, and the spelling has to show that — so the t doubles: bott has a short o. A single t (bot) would wrongly signal a long vowel and would in fact be a different word (bot, "fine / penance"). The doubling is not decoration; it is carrying real phonetic information.
The parallel with the past -dde
Here is the insight that makes Group 3 easy to remember: the supine -tt and the past -dde are doing the same thing. Both double the consonant to spell the short vowel. The past doubles the d (bo → bodde), the supine doubles the t (bo → bott). So the entire Group 3 paradigm is internally consistent:
| Form | Ending | Consonant | bo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive / present | — / -r | none (long vowel) | bo / bor |
| Past | -dde | double d (short vowel) | bodde |
| Supine | -tt | double t (short vowel) | bott |
Read down the column: bor (long), bodde (short, double d), bott (short, double t). The vowel shortens the moment you add an ending, and the spelling doubles the consonant each time to record it. Once you see -dde and -tt as two faces of the same length rule, you no longer have to memorise them separately.
Förut bodde jag i Lund, men jag har bott i Uppsala sedan i höstas.
I used to live in Lund, but I've lived in Uppsala since the autumn. bodde (past, -dde) and bott (supine, -tt) — same short-vowel doubling.
Vi trodde dig då och vi har trott dig hela tiden.
We believed you then and we've believed you the whole time. trodde / trott — the matched pair.
A note on klä and short-vowel ä
klä ("dress / clothe") and a couple of others end in -ä, and the supine is klä → klätt. The ä stays ä — it does not change quality, only length — and the t doubles just as it does after o or y. The reflexive klä sig ("get dressed") behaves the same: han har klätt sig ("he has got dressed").
Barnen har klätt sig själva i morse.
The children dressed themselves this morning. klä → klätt, with the ä intact.
Jag har brett smör på alla mackorna.
I've spread butter on all the sandwiches. bre → brett, with the matching past bredde.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag har bot här i tre år.
Incorrect — a single t marks a long vowel (and 'bot' is another word). The supine needs the doubled -tt: bott.
✅ Jag har bott här i tre år.
I have lived here for three years.
❌ Vi har trodd på dig.
Incorrect — trodd would be a -dd participle form; the Group 3 supine is trott.
✅ Vi har trott på dig.
We have believed in you.
❌ Hon har bodde i Malmö.
Incorrect — bodde is the simple past. After har you need the supine bott.
✅ Hon har bott i Malmö.
She has lived in Malmö.
❌ Har du nåt fram?
Incorrect — that spelling collides with 'nåt' (= något, 'something'). The supine of nå is nått.
✅ Har du nått fram?
Have you reached / arrived?
Key Takeaways
- Group 3 verbs are short, vowel-final verbs (bo, tro, sy, klä, nå); their supine adds -tt (bott, trott, sytt, klätt, nått).
- The doubled t spells a short stem vowel — a single t would mark a long vowel and is wrong (and often a different word).
- The supine -tt mirrors the past -dde: both double the consonant for the same short-vowel reason, so bor / bodde / bott is one consistent pattern.
- Don't confuse the supine bott with the past bodde, or use a single -t.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- The Supine: OverviewA2 — Swedish has a special, invariable verb form — the supine — used after 'ha' to build the perfect and pluperfect (jag har talat, jag hade skrivit). It never agrees with anything, ends in -at / -t / -tt / -it by verb group, and is DISTINCT from the agreeing past participle: 'I have written' is skrivit, but 'a written book' is skriven. English collapses both into one '-en' form; Swedish keeps them apart.
- Past Tense: Group 3 (-dde)A2 — Group 3 short verbs end in a stressed vowel (bo, tro, sy, klä) and form the preteritum by adding a doubled -dde (bo → bodde, tro → trodde, sy → sydde, klä → klädde), with a supine in -tt (bott, trott). The double consonant isn't arbitrary: it's the Swedish length system at work — a short stressed vowel must be followed by a double consonant in spelling.
- Double ConsonantsA2 — A doubled consonant marks a short, stressed vowel before it (vit vs vitt, glas vs glass). The doubling simplifies before another consonant (känna → känt) and the letters m and n break the rule at the end of a word — a stubborn exception that trips up even advanced learners.