In formal written Swedish, you can often make sentences more concise by dropping the temporal auxiliary verbs har (has/have) and hade (had) in subordinate clauses. This stylistic choice is known as ha-bortfall (ha-omission).
Dropping the Auxiliary
Normally, the perfect tenses use har or hade followed by the supine form of a main verb. However, when writing formally, you can drop the auxiliary verb if it appears inside a subordinate clause. The remaining supine verb is enough to clearly communicate the tense.
This frequently happens in clauses introduced by subjunctions like att (that) or när (when):
| We note that the boss has completed the assessment. | Vi noterar att chefen slutfört bedömningen. |
| When they have completed the analysis, they report the result. | När de slutfört analysen, redovisar de resultatet. |
Relative Clauses
You can also apply ha-bortfall to relative clauses that modify a noun, typically starting with som (that/which/who).
| They evaluate the new measure that has solved the problem. | De utvärderar den nya åtgärden som löst problemet. |
| The purpose that has driven the project is clear. | Syftet som drivit projektet är tydligt. |
Other Subjunctions and the Past Perfect
This stylistic omission applies universally to all types of subordinate clauses, including those starting with:
- eftersom (because)
- om (if)
- question words like varför (why) or hur (how)
It works identically for both the present perfect (dropping har) and the past perfect (dropping hade).
| Because the value has dropped, we must evaluate the budget. | Eftersom värdet sjunkit, måste vi utvärdera budgeten. |
| The researcher explained why the measurement had been delayed. | Forskaren förklarade varför mätningen varit försenad. |