Grammar 11: Talking About the Past – Preteritum

Lesson 11: Talking About the Past – Preteritum

Att prata om det förflutna – preteritum

Lesson Objectives:

• Learn the basics of the past tense (preteritum) in Swedish.
• Understand how to form regular and some irregular past tense verbs.
• Practice telling simple stories or describing past activities.

What is Preteritum?

Preteritum is the simple past tense in Swedish, used to talk about things that happened or were completed in the past.

Regular Verbs in Preteritum

For regular verbs, Swedish typically adds one of these endings to the verb stem, depending on the verb group:

Verb Group	Infinitive Ending	Preteritum Ending (Example)	Example Verb	Example Past Tense
1	-a	-ade	prata (to talk)	pratade (talked)
2	consonant	-de or -te (depending on verb)	ringa (to call)	ringde (called)
3	short verbs	no ending	kom (come)	kom (came)

Examples:

• Jag pratade med Anna. (I talked with Anna.)
• Hon ringde sin mamma. (She called her mom.)
• Vi köpte en bok. (We bought a book.) — Note: köpa is irregular, ends with -te in preteritum.

Irregular Verbs in Preteritum

Some verbs don’t follow the usual patterns. Here are a few important ones:

Infinitive	Preteritum	English
vara	var	was/were
gå	gick	went
äta	åt	ate
göra	gjorde	did
få	fick	got/received
se	såg	saw

How to Tell Simple Past Stories

When telling past stories, you usually:

• Start with a time marker (e.g., igår, förra veckan, i helgen)

• Use verbs in preteritum to describe actions

• Add details about who, what, where, and when

Example Sentences

Swedish	English
Jag åt frukost klockan åtta.	I ate breakfast at eight.
Vi såg en film i helgen.	We saw a movie this weekend.
Hon gick till skolan igår.	She went to school yesterday.
De pratade mycket på festen.	They talked a lot at the party.
Han gjorde sina läxor efter middagen.	He did his homework after dinner.

Practice: Translate to Swedish

1. I went to the store yesterday.
2. She ate dinner at six.
3. We talked on the phone last night.
4. They saw a concert last weekend.
5. He did his work this morning.

Answers:

1. Jag gick till affären igår.
2. Hon åt middag klockan sex.
3. Vi pratade i telefon igår kväll.
4. De såg en konsert förra helgen.
5. Han gjorde sitt arbete i morse.

Language Tip

• Many past tense verbs are irregular, so it’s useful to memorize common ones.
• Preteritum is the most common past tense used in spoken and written Swedish to tell stories about the past.