Unlike many European languages, Swedish verbs do not conjugate according to number and person.

Present Tense

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Unlike in other European languages, the Swedish present tense does not conjugate according to person and number. The table below shows the present tense of vara - to be.

Vara To Be
Jag är I am
Du är You are
Han (Hon/Den/Det) är He (She/It) is
Vi är We are
Ni är You are
De är They are

Regular Verbs in the Present Tense

There are two forms of conjugation for regular present tense verbs. Form 1 simply adds r to the infinitive, and form 2 removes the final a and adds er.

Form 1
Spela To Play
Jag spelar I play
Du spelar You play
Han (Hon/Den/Det) spelar He (She/It) plays
Vi spelar We play
Ni spelar You play
De spelar They play
Form 2
Hjälpa To Help
Jag hjälper I help
Du hjälper You help
Han (Hon/Den/Det) hjälper He (She/It) helps
Vi hjälper We help
Ni hjälper You help
De hjälper They help

Note that form one is more common than form two, and some may even regard the second form as irregular. You will still be understood if you conjugate a form two verb as a form one verb (e.g. Jag hjälpar in place of Jag hjälper), although native Swedish people will still pick up on this mistake.

Past tense

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Regular verbs in the past tense Like the present tense, the past tense also has two forms. When using the first form in past tense, you add a -de to the verb stem. In the second form you drop the a and add -te. However, be aware that a lot of the form 2 verbs are irregular, e.g. flyger, äter, springer (to fly, to eat, to run).

Form 1
Spela To Play
Jag spelade I played
Du spelade You played
Han (Hon/Den/Det) spelade He (She/It) played
Vi spelade We played
Ni spelade You played
De spelade They played
Form 2
Hjälpa To Help
Jag hjälpte I helped
Du hjälpte You helped
Han (Hon/Den/Det) hjälpte He (She/It) helped
Vi hjälpte We helped
Ni hjälpte You helped
De hjälpte They helped

Future tense

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Regular verbs in future tense In Swedish, verbs are not different in future tense. Instead, another verb is used, kommer.
So to form future tense, you say <pronoun> kommer att <the verb's base form>.

Example: "Jag kommer att spela."
Which means: "I will play."

It should be noted that in everyday speech the "att" in "Jag kommer att spela" often is dropped. Also, the "kommer" is the most normal one for future tense, but a modal verb can also be used, as in the example: "Jag ska spela". Which means: "I shall play"