What is the past tense of leva in Swedish?

The past tense (preteritum) of leva is levde, the same for every person: jag levde, du levde, vi levde.

What is the supine of leva?

levt. The supine is used with har and hade to form the perfect: jag har levt, jag hade levt.

Is leva a regular verb?

Yes. leva follows group 2a (-er, -de): lever, levde, levt.

leva Conjugation: Swedish Verb “live”

Form	Swedish	English pattern
Infinitive	att leva	to …
Present	lever	I …, he …s
Past (preteritum)	levde	I …ed
Supine (perfect)	har levt	have …ed
Past perfect	hade levt	had …ed
Future	ska leva / kommer att leva	will …
Imperative	lev!	… !
Past participle	levd	…ed (adjective)
Present participle	levande	…ing

Swedish verbs do not change for person: jag lever, du lever, hon lever, vi lever, de lever. Learn one form per tense and you can use it with everyone.

How leva conjugates

Group 2a verbs drop the -a of the infinitive and add -er in the present and -de in the past: stänga → stänger, stängde, stängt. The past takes -de when the stem ends in a voiced sound. So leva → lever, levde, levt.

Meanings and examples

Patterns: ngn = någon (someone) · ngt = något (something) · SATS = a clause · VERB = a verb · PLATS = a place · RIKTNING = a direction · TID = a time · SÄTT = a manner · ADJ = an adjective

1 live

är vid liv, existerar; får sitt uppehälle

Pattern ngn/ngt lever

lever dina föräldrar?are your parents still alive?
leva på rislive on rice
föda levande ungargive birth to live offspring
Lever dina gamla föräldrar ännu?

2 be noisy

för oväsen

Pattern ngn lever

han svor och levdehe cursed and kicked up a row

Phrases with leva

Swedish builds many meanings by adding a particle (upp, ut, på, om) or a fixed phrase. These are the ones the dictionary lists:

leva upp till sitt ryktelive up to one's reputation ("live as people believe one lives")
levande ljuscandles ("wax candles, etc.")

leva in real stories

Sentences from the Smisli reading library where this verb appears:

I trettio år har jag levt i hans skugga.Midsommarmordet, episode 5
De lever under jorden i norr, och de tar vilsna människor som offer.Norrsken, episode 4

leva conjugation