Fun with Swedish Grammar – Imperative Posted by Marcus Cederström on Dec 9, 2010 in Grammar, Swedish Language
The imperative form (or imperativ in Swedish) is that form where you really just want to make some demands. Like “Stop!” or “Look!” or even “Listen!” It’s a good form to know, and it comes in handy in a few different verb tenses. Like the perfect tense. But first, we need to learn the imperative form.
There are a couple of basic rules that help make this relatively simple. If we know the present tense of a verb we can easily apply these rules and create the imperative.
Let’s start with some –ar verbs. Like “slutar,” “kramar,” and “stannar.” You’ll notice that all three end with that –ar in the present tense. If that is the case, to turn it into the imperative, all we need to do is drop the –r. It’s that easy.
So:
Slutar ————–> Sluta
Kramar ————–> Krama
Stannar ————–> Stanna
Now let’s look at the present tense verbs that end in –er. We’ll use “skriker,” “känner,” and “ringer.” In this case, we drop the –er completely.
So:
Skriker ————–> Skrik
Känner ————–> Känn
Ringer ————–> Ring
And no language would be complete without a few exceptions. And Swedish has them. And you just need to learn them I’m afraid. But to get you started, here are a few:
Gör ————–> Gör
Är ————–> Var
Ser ————–> Se
Blir ————–> Bli
Good luck!
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About the Author: Marcus Cederström
Marcus Cederström has been writing for the Transparent Swedish Blog since 2009. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Oregon, a Master's Degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a PhD in Scandinavian Studies and Folklore from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has taught Swedish for several years and still spells things wrong. So, if you see something, say something.
Comments:
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THanks
Marcus Cederström:
hopefully this has been of some use for you guys!
Megan:
exactly what i was looking for, thank you!!
james:
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pls also discuss in detail the last one i mean third type of it
Marcus Cederström:
unfortunately, the exceptions are just that, exceptions. one of the best things to do is just memorize those.
Roshan:
Thanks, this was very useful.
Maja:
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Marcus Cederström:
@Maja Glad that it’s helpful!
Carl:
I am just wondering about the verbs ending in vowels other than ‘a’ like ‘tro’ ‘sno’ ‘ske’ ‘nå’ ‘sy’