Strong verbs are those verbs that don’t follow the rules. They’re the ones that are just a little bit different. Strong verbs are tricky in all kinds of languages. They feel like just rote memorization. Especially after having mastered the rules and patterns that guide so many of our verb forms. It’s no different in Swedish.

Even though the strong verbs can be tricky, there are a few patterns. Below you’ll find a few of those patterns, as well as the imperative form, the past tense, and the supine form. Plenty of text books, verb books, and other teaching materials have similar tables. Hopefully, setting it up this way though will help you see some of the patterns by using some of the more common strong verbs. Good luck everyone!

i (short sound) ——- a (short sound) ——- u (short sound)

i (long sound) ——- e (long sound) ——- i (long sound)

u (long sound)/y (long sound) ——- ö (long sound) ——- u (long sound)