Strong verbs are the ones that build their past not with an ending but by changing the stem vowel (skriva → skrev, dricka → drack). Their supine — the form after ha — adds the ending -it, but to a stem whose vowel may differ from both the infinitive and the past. The result is that a strong verb has three vowel grades, not two: one for the infinitive, one for the past, and a third for the supine. dricka / drack / druckit runs through i → a → u. This is the single fact that makes strong supines hard, and the only honest advice is to memorise the supine as its own principal part. This page shows you the pattern, the most common verbs, and the two traps to avoid.
The ending: -it, on a strong stem
Every strong verb's supine ends in -it. That part is regular. What varies is the vowel in front of it. Compare the three forms of each verb — infinitive, past (preteritum), supine — and watch the vowel move:
| Infinitive | Past | Supine (-it) | Vowel pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| skriva | skrev | skrivit | i – e – i | write |
| dricka | drack | druckit | i – a – u | drink |
| sjunga | sjöng | sjungit | u – ö – u | sing |
| springa | sprang | sprungit | i – a – u | run |
| bita | bet | bitit | i – e – i | bite |
| finna | fann | funnit | i – a – u | find |
| bjuda | bjöd | bjudit | u – ö – u | invite / offer |
Har du skrivit klart uppsatsen?
Have you finished writing the essay? skriva → skrev → skrivit; the supine vowel returns to i.
Vi har druckit upp allt kaffe.
We've drunk all the coffee. dricka → drack → druckit; the supine vowel is u — found in neither the infinitive nor the past.
Hon har sjungit i kören i många år.
She's sung in the choir for many years. sjunga → sjöng → sjungit.
Jag har sprungit tio kilometer idag.
I've run ten kilometres today. springa → sprang → sprungit.
Three vowel grades: the core difficulty
This is the point that separates strong supines from everything else. A weak verb has essentially one stem vowel throughout (tala / talade / talat — always a). A strong verb can have three different vowels, one per principal part:
- dricka — infinitive vowel i
- drack — past vowel a
- druckit — supine vowel u
The vowel that appears in the supine is, for many verbs, found in neither the infinitive nor the past. You cannot derive druckit by looking at dricka or drack — the u is a third, independent grade. This is why a strong verb has to be learned as a trio of principal parts (dricka, drack, druckit), exactly the way English drills drink, drank, drunk — and note that English does the very same thing: drunk has a u that is in neither drink nor drank. Swedish strong verbs are this pattern's close cousin.
The good news is that the patterns cluster. The i – a – u group (dricka, springa, finna, binda, vinna) and the u – ö – u group (sjunga, bjuda, ljuga, flyga) and the i – e – i group (skriva, bita, rida, skina) cover a large share of strong verbs. Learning one verb in a cluster well gives you a template for the others. But you still confirm each verb individually, because the clusters have exceptions.
Vem har bjudit dig på festen?
Who invited you to the party? bjuda → bjöd → bjudit; the supine vowel u matches the infinitive here.
Hunden har bitit grannen.
The dog has bitten the neighbour. bita → bet → bitit; i – e – i, supine back to i.
Till slut har vi funnit en lösning. (somewhat formal)
In the end we've found a solution. (somewhat formal) finna → fann → funnit; i – a – u.
Trap 1: don't reuse the past-tense vowel
The most common error is to build the supine from the past vowel — to hear drack and produce drackit, or hear sjöng and produce sjöngit. This is wrong: the supine has its own vowel, usually different from the past.
Vi har druckit kaffe, INTE 'drackit'.
We have drunk coffee — the supine is druckit (u), not the past vowel drack → 'drackit'.
The reason this trap is so seductive is that the past form is the one you tend to meet first and most often, so it becomes the default in your head. Resisting it means treating the supine vowel as non-negotiable data to memorise, not something to reconstruct from the past.
Trap 2: don't confuse the supine -it with the participle -en
Strong verbs, like all verbs, have two "third forms": the supine (after ha) and the past participle (the adjective). For strong verbs these look quite different:
- Supine: skrivit — after ha: jag har skrivit
- Past participle: skriven — as an adjective, agreeing: en skriven text, ett skrivet brev, skrivna texter
| Verb | Supine (-it, after ha) | Participle (-en, adjective) |
|---|---|---|
| skriva | har skrivit | en skriven text |
| dricka | har druckit | en drucken man ("a drunk man") |
| äta | har ätit | en uppäten tallrik |
| stjäla | har stulit | en stulen cykel |
Jag har skrivit avtalet, så nu finns ett skrivet avtal.
I've written the contract, so now there's a written contract. skrivit (supine, after har) vs. skrivet (participle, agreeing with avtal).
Någon har stulit cykeln — det står en stulen cykel i annonsen.
Someone has stolen the bike — there's a stolen bike in the ad. stulit (supine) vs. stulen (participle).
After ha, it is always the supine in -it. The -en form is reserved for describing nouns, where it agrees like an adjective. The two are drilled side by side on Supine vs. Past Participle.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vi har drackit kaffe.
Incorrect — that reuses the past vowel (drack). The supine has its own vowel: druckit.
✅ Vi har druckit kaffe.
We have drunk coffee.
❌ Hon har sjöngit i kören.
Incorrect — sjöng is the past; the supine vowel is u: sjungit.
✅ Hon har sjungit i kören.
She has sung in the choir.
❌ Jag har skriven ett brev.
Incorrect — skriven is the agreeing participle. After har, use the supine skrivit.
✅ Jag har skrivit ett brev.
I have written a letter.
❌ Har du springit hela vägen?
Incorrect — the supine vowel of springa is u: sprungit, not 'springit'.
✅ Har du sprungit hela vägen?
Have you run the whole way?
❌ Vi har bitt äpplet.
Incorrect — bita is strong, not a -tt verb; the supine is bitit.
✅ Vi har bitit i äpplet.
We have bitten into the apple.
Key Takeaways
- Strong verbs form the supine in -it, but on a stem whose vowel is often unique to the supine: dricka / drack / druckit (i / a / u).
- A strong verb has three vowel grades — infinitive, past, supine — so the supine must be learned as its own principal part, just like English drink / drank / drunk.
- Don't reuse the past vowel (drack → ❌ drackit; ✅ druckit).
- Don't confuse the supine -it (after ha: skrivit) with the participle -en (the adjective: skriven). After ha it is always the -it supine.
- Patterns cluster (i–a–u, u–ö–u, i–e–i), which helps — but confirm each verb individually.
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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: Strong Verbs (Ablaut)B1 — Strong (Group 4) verbs form the past by changing the stem vowel with no ending at all (skriva → skrev, dricka → drack, springa → sprang). The vowel shifts follow recurring patterns that line up almost one-to-one with English strong verbs (sjunga/sjöng/sjungit ~ sing/sang/sung), so English speakers can lean on cognate intuition — but must learn each verb's principal parts, because the supine (-it) is separate.
- 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.
- Supine vs Past ParticipleB1 — The single Swedish verb-form distinction English has no equivalent for: the supine (har skrivit — fixed, invariable, only after ha) versus the past participle (en skriven bok, ett skrivet brev, skrivna böcker — fully agreeing, used as adjective and in the passive). English collapses both into one '-en' word; Swedish splits them, and confusing the two (*har skriven, *en skrivit bok) is a hallmark learner error.