Simple past
The simple past is used a lot in Swedish. Always when you need to specify time with temporal adverbs, you use this form. You will find these kind of adverbs in the list further down this page.
Construct
Verbs from the first conjugation group get -ade at the end. To recap, these were verbs that end on -ar in present tense.
| Infinitiv | Imperativ | Präsens | Präteritum |
|---|---|---|---|
| -a | -a | -ar | -ade |
| jobba | jobba! | jobbar | jobbade |
Temporal adverbs in present tense and past tense
We already learned some temporal words in lesson 4, when we talked about present tense. In this table you will find the counterparts used in past tense. Remember that you need to use them with simple past.
| Present tense | Past tense | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| idag | today | igår | yesterday |
| i förrgår | the day before yesterday | ||
| i eftermiddag | this afternoon | i eftermiddags | this afternoon |
| ikväll | this evening, tonight | igår kväll | last night |
| i måndags kväll | Monday evening | ||
| i natt | tonight/this night | i natt/igår natt/förra natten | last night |
| den här lördagen | this Saturday/on Saturday | i lördags/förra lördagen | last Saturday |
| morse | this morning | ||
| igår morse | yesterday morning | ||
| i måndags morse | last Monday morning | ||
| (nu) i sommar | this summer | i somras/förra sommaren | last summer |
| (nu) i vinter | this winter | i vintras/förra vintern | last winter |
| (nu) i februari | this February | i februari | last February |
| i år | this year | i fjol/förra året | last year |
| för ett år sedan | one year ago | ||
| den här veckan | this week | förra veckan | last week |
So basically, we can construct some temporal adverbs with förra. However, there are many words that are commonly used with i and wouldn’t sound good with i. It’s not easy to know what to use. It’s best to just learn the common expressions.
To make it clear, what the difference between förra and i is, let’s take an example: If we currently have winter, then förra vintern is the last year’s winter. If we have spring, i vintras is the winter that just ended and förra vintern is the winter from the year before that.
Constructs like förra februari sound odd. To talk about past months, it’s better to use i. The days of the week work like seasons: i is used with the last one and förra with the one last week. This means, at times, you can use both constructions for the same day.