Category:Swedish class 4 strong verbs

Verbs where the ablaut vowel was followed by a sonorant (m, n, l, r) but no other consonant in Proto-Indo-European.


Class 4 has become almost indistinguishable from the second type of class 3 strong verb (with original -e-) in modern Swedish. (It should be noted that up until the late 18th century, the past plural/past subjunctive forms of these verbs was formed with the vowel -å-, so that the verb bära had the past plural/subjunctive båro and båre. This merged with the class 3 past plural/subjunctive, so that these two became buro and bure, respectively.)

The only current distinction is the vowel length, which is determined by the number of consonants following the vowel. Those verbs with a long vowel (one consonant after the vowel), which are mostly original class 4 verbs, have been placed in this category.

Form Young Older
Present tense -e/ä-
Past singular -a-
Past plural/subjunctive¹ -u- -å-
Supine -u-
¹ The number distinction in verbs has been lost in modern spoken Swedish, which only uses what was historically the singular. For more information see Appendix:Swedish verbs#Dated and archaic forms.