Preterite vs perfect in Swedish: talking about the past

Swedish verbs do not change with the person. Jag talar, du talar, vi talar all use the same form. What changes is the tense, and for the past you meet two forms: the preterite (talade) and the perfect (har talat). Choosing between them is mostly easy, because Swedish follows the same logic as English in most situations.

The four verb groups

Swedish verbs fall into four groups. The infinitive, the present, the preterite and the supine (the form used after har or hade) show the pattern.

Group	Infinitive	Present	Preterite	Supine	Meaning
1	tala	talar	talade	talat	speak
2a	stänga	stänger	stängde	stängt	close
2b	köpa	köper	köpte	köpt	buy
3	bo	bor	bodde	bott	live
4	skriva	skriver	skrev	skrivit	write

Group 1 has the infinitive in -a and is the largest group of regular verbs.
Group 2 adds -de after a voiced consonant and -te after a voiceless one.
Group 3 has short verbs ending in a vowel, such as bo, tro, sy.
Group 4 is the irregular verbs. The vowel changes, so you have to learn the forms.

Common irregular verbs

Infinitive	Present	Preterite	Supine	Meaning
vara	är	var	varit	be
ha	har	hade	haft	have
gå	går	gick	gått	go
se	ser	såg	sett	see
äta	äter	åt	ätit	eat
dricka	dricker	drack	druckit	drink
komma	kommer	kom	kommit	come

The preterite: a finished time in the past

Use the preterite when the time is finished and is stated or obvious.

Igår åt jag pizza. (Yesterday I ate pizza.)
Vi bodde i Umeå förra året. (We lived in Umeå last year.)
Hon kom för en timme sedan. (She came an hour ago.)

The perfect: a link to now

The perfect is made with har and the supine. It describes an experience, a result, or something that began in the past and continues.

Jag har varit i Sverige. (I have been to Sweden.)
Han har tappat sin nyckel. (He has lost his key. He does not have it now.)
Vi har bott här i tre år. (We have lived here for three years. We still live here.)

The English use with "for" or "since" is usual here: Jag har känt henne länge. (I have known her for a long time.)

Time words that rule out the perfect

As in English, you cannot combine the perfect with a specific, finished time. Igår har jag ätit pizza is wrong, so say Igår åt jag pizza. The perfect fits words like någon gång (at some point), aldrig (never), redan (already), än (yet) and any period that is still going on.

The past perfect

To talk about something before another past event, use hade and the supine: Jag hade ätit när hon ringde. (I had eaten when she called.)

Common mistakes

Forgetting the supine. After har you need -t or -it, not the infinitive. Wrong: Jag har äta. Right: Jag har ätit.
Using the perfect with igår or förra veckan. Use the preterite.
Using the preterite for something that is still true. Vi bodde här i tre år means you no longer live here.
Putting a past form after kan or vill. After a modal, you use the infinitive: Jag kan simma. The past is Jag kunde simma.

Practice

For the sounds of Swedish, which make these forms easier to hear, see pronunciation, pitch accent and the sj sound.