The short answer
The perfect is har plus the supine: jag har talat, vi har läst, han har bott, de har druckit. The supine endings are -at for group 1, -t for group 2, -tt for group 3 and -it for group 4. Replace har with hade and you have the pluperfect: jag hade talat. Use the perfect when the moment is not stated; as soon as you name a past time, Swedish switches to the preteritum.
The perfect tense is formed with 'har' (have) + supine form of the verb.
Group 1: -at (har talat), Group 2: -t (har läst), Group 3: -tt (har bott), Group 4: -it (har druckit).
Supine forms by group
| Group | Infinitive | Past | Supine | Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tala | talade | talat | har talat |
| 2a | stänga | stängde | stängt | har stängt |
| 2b | läsa | läste | läst | har läst |
| 3 | bo | bodde | bott | har bott |
| 4 | dricka | drack | druckit | har druckit |
In a sentence
Jag har talat med henne
I have spoken with her
Vi har läst boken
We have read the book
Han har bott här i tio år
He has lived here for ten years
What learners get wrong
Jag har varit i Sverige förra året.
Say instead: Jag var i Sverige förra året.
A named past time forces the preteritum. The perfect is for experience with no date attached: jag har varit i Sverige.
Jag har talad med henne.
Say instead: Jag har talat med henne.
The supine is not the past participle. Talat is the supine, used after har; talad is the participle, used as an adjective (en talad kommentar).
Questions people ask
- What is the supine, and how is it different from the participle?
- The supine is a fixed form used only after har or hade. The past participle is a separate form that behaves like an adjective and agrees with its noun: huset är målat, dörren är målad, husen är målade. Swedish keeps the two apart where English uses "painted" for both.
- How do I make the pluperfect?
- Swap har for hade: jag hade talat, vi hade läst. It works exactly as in English — the event happened before another past event: när jag kom hade de redan ätit.
- Is the perfect used the same way as in English?
- Very nearly. Both languages block a stated past time with the perfect, and both use it for experience and for results that still hold. The one thing to watch is that Swedish is stricter about switching to preteritum the moment a time expression appears.
Sources
Usage checked against Isof, the Swedish government's language institute, and Svenska Akademien. Where usage is genuinely divided, this page says so rather than inventing a rule.