Language/Swedish/Grammar/Passive-Voice
In today's lesson, you will learn how to form the passive Swedish verbs.
The Passive voice in Swedish does not use any subject.
There is just an object with which something is done.
Passive voice is used when we don’t know who is taking action or when it isn’t interesting who is doing it. In grammar terms we can express it as that we don’t have an agent in the sentence.
Passive voice is often used in newspaper articles and also news on TV and radio. Here are a few examples from Dagens Nyheter today:
- 17 skadades efter busskrock utanför Piteå.
(17 were injured after a bus crash outside Piteå.
- Sprängämnesstoff hittades i flickans sko.
Explosive materials were found in the girl’s shoe.
The passive voice is also used when instructions are given such as recipes in an informal language.
You will find passive forms on a carton of milk or on a bill like this:
- Öppnas här!
To be opened here.
- Betalas senast 100831
To be paid at the latest by Aug. 31, 2010.
How to construct it?
As you have seen the passive voice can be used for different tenses (actually all tenses) and it’s not complicated to construct the passive version of the verb. You more or less just ad a -s to the regular form except for the present tense where you need to remove the -r. It looks like this:
Present tense
| skadar (regular) | skadas (passive) |
| köper (regular) | köps/köpes (passive) |
| syr (regular) | sys (passive) |
| skriver (regular) | skrives/skrivs (passive) |
Past tense
| skadade (regular) | skadades (passive) |
| köpte (regular) | köptes (passive) |
| sydde (regular) | syddes (passive) |
| skrev (regular) | skrevs (passive) |
Perfect participle
We can also create the passive voice with something called “the perfect participle” which is more common in spoken Swedish and less formal Swedish. I will discuss this in a different post but I can show you what our s-passives would look like constructed with a particple:
- skadades – blev skadad
(was hurt)
- hittades – blev hittad
(was found)
4 verb groups
You should inform yourself before about the 4 verb groups in Swedish and how to build the different tenses in the active form.
The S-passive is named so because you build first the right verb tense in the active form and then just put an -s to the so called "supinum".
Let's try it out together with the 2a-group verb att köra/kör!/(kör)/körde/har, hade kört (Infintivi/imperativ!(presens)/simple past/perfect, plusquamperfect)-> köras/körs/kördes/körts
Aktiv verbform Inifitiv
- I will drive the car.
Jag ska köra bilen.
-> Passiv verbform Infinitiv plus -s:
- The car will be driven.
Bilen ska köras. (köra + s).
Aktiv form Presens
- I drive the car.
Jag kör bilen.
-> Passiv verbform Presens, imperativ plus -s:
- The car is driven.
Bilen körs. (kör + s)
Aktiv form simple past
- I drove the car.
Jag körde bilen.
-> Passiv verbform simple past plus -s:
- The car was driven.
Bilen kördes. (körde + s)
Aktiv form perfect (first past tense)
- I drove the car.
Jag körde bilen.
-> Passiv verbform Perfect plus -s:
- The car has/had been driven.
Bilen körts. (har, hade kört + s)
Group 1
regular verbs, biggest group, "study": att studera/studera!/(studerar)/studerade/har, hade studerat -> studeras/studeras/studerades/har, hade studerats
Aktiv verb example i presens: Studenter (=subjekt) studerar (=present tense) lektionen om s-passiv (=objekt).
Passiv verb example i presens: Lektionen om s-passiv studeras.
Group 2b
"smoke": att röka/rök!/(röker)/rökte/har, hade rökt -> rökas/röks/röktes/har, hade rökts
Aktiv verb example i simple past: Han rökte 40 cigaretter.
Passiv verb example i simple past: 40 cigaretter röktes.
Group 3
"reside, live in": att bo/bo!/(bor)/bodde/har, hade bott -> bos/bos/boddes/har, hade botts
Aktiv verb example i perfect: En familj har bott i huset.
Passiv verb example i perfect: Huset har bebotts. (har bott -> botts + i -> be = bebotts)
Group 4
irregular verbs, exampel with "do": att göra/gör!/(gör)/gjorde/har, hade gjort -> göras/görs/gjordes/har, hade gjorts
Aktiv verb example i perfect: Hon hade gjort sin bäst att förklara s-supinum.
Passiv verb example i perfect: Det bästa hade gjorts att förklara s-supinum.
The rest is just to practice, good luck and have fun"
If I did mistakes or if you would like to add an translation or something new, please feel free to do so.