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### Dreaming Big: Unreal Conditionals

When you want to talk about hypothetical situations, daydreams, or impossible present conditions—like what you would do if you won the lottery—you use an unreal conditional sentence.

### The "If" Clause: Om + Past Tense

To set up a hypothetical condition in the present or future, Swedish uses **om** (if) followed by a verb in the **simple past tense** (preteritum). Even though you are dreaming about right now, you use the past tense, just like in English ("If I *won*...").

### The Result: Skulle + Infinitive

To describe the outcome of this imaginary situation, the main clause uses the auxiliary verb **skulle** (would) followed by the bare infinitive of the main verb.

### Word Order: The V2 Rule

Just like with real conditionals, if your sentence starts with the *om*-clause, it acts as the first block of information. The Swedish V2 (verb-second) rule means the main clause must start immediately with its verb. In unreal conditionals, this means the main clause will always start with **skulle**, swapping places with the subject.

The formula is: **Om [subject] + [past tense verb]**, **skulle + [subject] + [infinitive]**.

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### Common Verbs: Hade and Var

Two of the most common verbs you will use in hypothetical *om*-clauses are **hade** (had) and **var** (was/were). Notice that Swedish doesn't have a separate subjunctive form for "were" like English does; you just use the standard past tense *var*.

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### Asking Hypothetical Questions

You can easily turn these daydreams into questions. The word order remains exactly the same: if the *om*-clause comes first, the main clause simply continues with *skulle* followed by the subject and the rest of the question.

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Unreal conditionals (skulle)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

The definite ending (barnet, hunden)

Indefinite articles and -ar verbs (en, ett)

Basic word order

Singular adjectives (stor, stort)

Plural adjectives (-a)

Sentence negation (inte)

Yes/No questions

Basic question words (vad, vem, var)

Regular Group 2 verbs (-er)

Short verbs and irregulars (har, gör)

The infinitive marker (att)

Modal verbs (kan, vill, måste, får)

Future intention (ska)

Time adverbs (imorgon, igår)

Word order inversion

Adverbs of frequency (ibland, aldrig)

Everyday things (dörren, stolen, tåget)

Definite suffix spelling changes

Plural nouns Group 1 and 2 (-or, -ar)

Plural nouns Group 3 (-er, -r)

Neuter indefinite plurals

Definite plural suffixes (-na, -a, -en)

Object pronouns (mig, dig, oss)

Reflexive pronouns (sig)

Expanded question words (när, varför)

Which and what (vilken, vilket, vilka)

Coordinating conjunctions (men, eller, för)

Prepositions of place (i, på, till, från)

Quantifiers (mycket, många)

Indefinite pronouns (någon, något, några)

First and second person possessives (min, din, vår, er)

Third person possessives (hans, hennes, dess, deras)

Reflexive possessives (sin, sitt, sina)

The genitive (-s)

Adjectives before singular nouns

Adjectives before plural nouns (-a)

Double definiteness (den, det, de)

Demonstratives (den här, det här, de här)

The imperative mood

Past tense of vara and ha (var, hade)

Possessives for names (-s)

Definite plural adjectives (de ... -a)

Genitive case for names (-s)

Numbers 1 to 10 (en, två, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (elva till tjugo)

Counting by tens to 100 (trettio, fyrtio...)

Days of the week (måndag, tisdag...)

Months of the year (januari, februari...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (första, andra...)

Greetings and politeness (hej, tack, förlåt)

Particle verbs of direction (gå ut, komma in)

Simple past: Group 1 (-ade)

Simple past: Group 2a (-de)

Simple past: Group 2b (-te)

Simple past: Group 3 (-dde)

Simple past: Group 4

Present perfect: Groups 1 and 2 (har)

Present perfect: Groups 3 and 4

Past perfect (hade)

Future predictions (kommer att)

Future with present tense

The adjective small (liten, litet, små)

Demonstratives of distance (den där, det där, de där)

Negative pronouns (ingen, inget, inga)

Universal pronouns (all, allt, alla)

The generic pronoun (man, en)

Possessive generic pronoun (ens)

Reciprocal pronoun (varandra)

Qualitative pronouns (sådan, sådant, sådana)

Habitual time expressions (på)

Specific past time expressions (i)

Past time expressions (för ... sedan)

Future time expressions (om)

Location and motion adverbs (här/hit, där/dit)

Consequences (så)

Correlative conjunctions (både ... och)

Either and neither (antingen ... eller, varken ... eller)

Verbs of opinion and belief (tycker, tror, tänker)

Subordinate clauses (att, om)

Time clauses (när, innan, medan)

Clauses of cause (eftersom, därför att)

Negation in subordinate clauses (inte)

V2 word order inversion

Relative clauses as subjects (som)

Relative clauses as objects (som)

Relative clauses for places (där)

Adverbs from adjectives (-t)

Adjective comparative and superlative (-are, -ast)

Question	Answer
the lottery	lotteriet
If I won the lottery, I would never work again.	Om jag vann på lotteriet, skulle jag aldrig jobba igen.
the dream house	drömhuset
If I won the lottery, I would buy this dream house.	Om jag vann på lotteriet, skulle jag köpa det här drömhuset.
the mansion	herrgården
If you had a lot of money, would you buy the dream house or the mansion?	Om du hade mycket pengar, skulle du köpa drömhuset eller herrgården?
the millionaire	miljonären
If he were a millionaire, he would buy the mansion.	Om han var miljonär, skulle han köpa herrgården.
the million	miljonen
the yacht	yachten
If I had a million, I would live on a yacht.	Om jag hade en miljon, skulle jag bo på en yacht.
impossible	omöjlig
If I had a yacht, nothing would be impossible.	Om jag hade en yacht, skulle ingenting vara omöjligt.
to donate	donera
the charity	välgörenheten
If we won a million, we would donate a lot to charity.	Om vi vann en miljon, skulle vi donera mycket till välgörenhet.
If they had the money, they would donate everything to charity.	Om de hade pengarna, skulle de donera allt till välgörenhet.
If I were rich, I would have a big house.	Om jag var rik, skulle jag ha ett stort hus.
If you won the lottery, would you donate the money or buy a yacht?	Om du vann på lotteriet, skulle du donera pengarna eller köpa en yacht?
real	verklig
If the millionaire were real, he would give us the money.	Om miljonären var verklig, skulle han ge oss pengarna.
If the win were real, the situation would not be impossible.	Om vinsten var verklig, skulle situationen inte vara omöjlig.