Johan målade huset.

Breakdown of Johan målade huset.

huset
the house
Johan
Johan
måla
to paint

Questions & Answers about Johan målade huset.

Why does the verb målade end in -ade?
Målade is the simple past tense of att måla (to paint). Because måla ends in an -a in its infinitive form, it belongs to the most common group of Swedish verbs (Group 1). To form the past tense for this group, you simply add -de to the infinitive, making it målade.
How do Swedes usually pronounce past tense words like målade?
In everyday spoken Swedish, the -de at the end is often completely silent. People will usually pronounce this sentence as Johan måla huset. Because of this, you often have to rely on the context of the conversation to know someone is using the past tense instead of the present tense or infinitive.
Just as a refresher, why is the object huset and not just hus?
This is the definite form, which translates to the house. Since hus is an ett-word (ett hus means a house), you add the suffix -et to the end of the word to make it definite, giving us huset.

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