Vara-Passive (Stative) in Swedish

In Brief

The Swedish vara-passive combines a form of vara (“to be”) with a past participle (a verb form such as “closed” or “written”) to present the state or result left by an action: Dörren är stängd means “The door is closed.” The participle normally agrees with the word it describes: brevet är skrivet, but breven är skrivna. Use bli + participle to focus on a change or event, and an s-passive when the process, routine, or action itself is central.

Overview

Swedish has several passive constructions. In a passive, the subject (the person or thing the sentence is about) undergoes an action rather than performing it. The vara-passive is special because it usually directs attention away from the event and toward the condition that exists as its result. In Fönstret är öppnat, for example, someone has opened the window and it now stands open.

This distinction matters especially for English-speaking learners. English “is + past participle” can describe either a state or an event: “The shop is closed” may report its current condition, while “The shop is closed at six” may describe a regular action. Swedish commonly makes the intended viewpoint explicit: Butiken är stängd describes the condition, whereas Butiken stängs klockan sex describes the routine.

At B2, the main task is therefore not merely forming a passive. You need to choose among vara, bli, and the -s form, while also handling participle agreement. The vara construction can appear in different tenses, so it can locate a resulting state in the present, past, or future.

How It Works

The basic pattern

The structure is:

subject + a form of vara + past participle (+ av + agent)

A past participle is a verb-derived form that can describe a noun, much like an adjective: stängd “closed,” målad “painted,” skriven “written.” The optional agent is the person or thing responsible for the earlier action.

• Dörren är stängd. — The door is closed.
• Boken är skriven av honom. — The book is written by him.
• Väggarna var målade. — The walls were painted.

The form of vara establishes the time of the state:

Time	Form of vara	Swedish	Meaning
Present	är	Rummet är bokat.	The room is booked.
Past	var	Rummet var bokat.	The room was booked.
Perfect	har varit	Rummet har varit bokat hela veckan.	The room has been booked all week.
Future	ska vara	Rummet ska vara städat före lunch.	The room is to be clean/cleaned before lunch.

With ska vara and similar combinations, context decides whether the sentence presents an expected completed result or a future condition.

Agreement of the participle

The participle normally agrees with the noun it describes in gender and number. Swedish nouns have two grammatical genders: common gender, usually called en-words, and neuter, usually called ett-words. Number means singular or plural.

A common pattern is illustrated by stängd:

Noun type	Participle	Example	English
en-word, singular	stängd	Dörren är stängd.	The door is closed.
ett-word, singular	stängt	Fönstret är stängt.	The window is closed.
Plural	stängda	Dörrarna är stängda.	The doors are closed.
Definite adjectival form	stängda	den stängda dörren	the closed door

Other frequent sets include:

Infinitive	Common singular	Neuter singular	Plural	Meaning
måla	målad	målat	målade	painted
skriva	skriven	skrivet	skrivna	written
välja	vald	valt	valda	chosen
bryta	bruten	brutet	brutna	broken
öppna	öppnad	öppnat	öppnade	opened

Participles are not all formed in exactly the same way. Regular verb classes give useful patterns, but strong and irregular verbs must often be learned as a set: skriven–skrivet–skrivna, funnen–funnet–funna, gjord–gjort–gjorda. A dictionary normally lists the relevant forms.

Past participle, not supine

Swedish distinguishes the past participle from the supine, the form used after har or hade to build the perfect tenses. English often uses the same-looking form in both jobs, but Swedish does not.

Function	Swedish	English
Perfect with supine	Han har skrivit boken.	He has written the book.
State with participle	Boken är skriven.	The book is written.
Perfect passive with participle	Boken har varit skriven länge.	The book has been written for a long time.

Do not replace skriven with skrivit after vara. The participle agrees; the supine does not.

Choosing between vara, bli, and -s

The three constructions offer different viewpoints rather than three interchangeable shapes.

Construction	Main focus	Example	Natural interpretation
vara + participle	existing state or completed result	Dörren är stängd.	The door is in a closed state.
bli + participle	event, change, or entry into a state	Dörren blev stängd.	The door got/was closed.
s-passive	action, process, routine, instruction	Dörren stängs klockan tio.	The door is closed at ten.

Compare Huset är byggt av trä (“The house is built/made of wood”), which describes the finished house, with Huset byggdes 1920 (“The house was built in 1920”), which reports the historical event. Likewise, Maten är lagad says the food is ready; Maten lagas says cooking is taking place or describes how it is done.

Examples in Context

Swedish	English	Note
Dörren är stängd.	The door is closed.	Present state; common-gender singular agreement.
Fönstret är stängt.	The window is closed.	Neuter singular takes -t.
Fönstren är målade.	The windows are painted.	Plural agreement.
Middagen är serverad.	Dinner is served.	The result is ready now.
Boken är skriven av honom.	The book is written by him.	av introduces the author or agent.
Alla platser är redan bokade.	All the seats are already booked.	redan reinforces the completed result.
Vägen var blockerad efter olyckan.	The road was blocked after the accident.	A past state resulting from an event.
Dokumenten har varit gömda i flera år.	The documents have been hidden for several years.	A state continuing over a period.
Rapporten ska vara färdigskriven på fredag.	The report is to be fully written by Friday.	Required completed result by a deadline.
När vi kom var lamporna släckta.	When we arrived, the lights were off.	Background state at a past time.
Glaset är gjort för hand.	The glass is handmade.	Describes how the finished object was produced.
Reglerna är tydligt formulerade.	The rules are clearly worded.	Evaluates the wording as it exists.

Common Mistakes

Using the supine after vara

• Wrong: Boken är skrivit på svenska.
• Right: Boken är skriven på svenska.
• Why: Skrivit is the supine used in har skrivit. After vara, use the agreeing past participle skriven.

Forgetting neuter agreement

• Wrong: Brevet är skriven på svenska.
• Right: Brevet är skrivet på svenska.
• Why: Brev is an ett-word, so the singular participle takes the neuter form skrivet.

Using singular agreement with a plural subject

• Wrong: Fönstren är målat.
• Right: Fönstren är målade.
• Why: A plural subject requires the plural participle form.

Using vara for an action in progress or a routine

• Wrong for the intended process: Bilen är reparerad just nu.
• Right: Bilen repareras just nu.
• Why: Är reparerad normally means that the repair is complete. The s-passive repareras presents the work as currently happening.

Using an event passive when only the state matters

• Awkward for a simple current-state report: Museet blir stängt i dag.
• Right: Museet är stängt i dag.
• Why: Blir stängt highlights a change or can suggest “will be closed.” If you simply report today’s opening status, är stängt is clearer.

Copying English ambiguity too closely

• Potentially misleading: Butiken är stängd klockan sex for “The shop is closed at six.”
• For a regular closing action: Butiken stängs klockan sex.
• For its state after six: Butiken är stängd efter klockan sex.
• Why: English allows the same wording for a routine and a state. Swedish commonly chooses different passive forms and time expressions to remove that ambiguity.

Usage Notes

The vara-passive is common when describing availability, preparation, condition, and completed work: rooms are bokade, food is lagad, files are sparade, and a task is utförd. It also appears naturally in descriptions of products and texts: Bordet är tillverkat i Sverige and Artikeln är skriven på lätt svenska.

An av-phrase can name the agent: Tavlan är målad av Hilma af Klint. However, an agent often makes the earlier event more prominent. If you are narrating when and by whom something happened, the s-passive may be more idiomatic: Tavlan målades av Hilma af Klint 1915. With the vara-passive, the sentence more readily characterizes the finished work or identifies its creator.

Some participles have become very adjective-like. In Hon är intresserad, Han är utbildad läkare, and Datorn är trasig, speakers may primarily hear a property or condition, not an active passive event. The boundary between a stative passive and an adjective is therefore not always sharp. For learners, the practical questions are still the same: does the phrase describe a state, and does the descriptive form agree with its subject?

Everyday Swedish often prefers a simple adjective where English uses a passive-looking phrase. For instance, Dörren är öppen describes an open door, while Dörren är öppnad more strongly implies the result of somebody opening it. Similarly, trasig is normally more natural than a mechanically formed equivalent of “broken” when simply describing something that does not work.

Beyond the Basics: Result, State, and Interpretation

The label “stative” is useful, but real sentences can leave room for more than one reading. Dörren har varit stängd hela dagen clearly measures the duration of a state. Dörren var stängd av vakten can instead invite an event-like interpretation because the agent is named. Context, adverbs, and the type of verb all influence how strongly the construction feels like a pure state.

A useful diagnostic is compatibility with duration expressions. Phrases such as i två timmar, hela dagen, and sedan måndags naturally measure a continuing condition:

• Vägen har varit avstängd i två timmar. — The road has been closed for two hours.
• Kontoret har varit stängt sedan måndags. — The office has been closed since Monday.

By contrast, a precise event time often favors the s-passive:

• Vägen stängdes av klockan åtta. — The road was closed off at eight.
• Kontoret stängdes i måndags. — The office was closed on Monday.

Be careful with stängd versus avstängd. Stängd commonly describes a closed door, shop, or institution. Avstängd may mean shut off, blocked, suspended, or disconnected, depending on context: Vägen är avstängd, Vattnet är avstängt, Spelaren är avstängd. These are vocabulary distinctions, but they often appear in vara-passive descriptions.

Word order follows ordinary Swedish clause rules. In a main clause, the finite verb occupies the second position: I dag är museet stängt. In a subordinate clause, a sentence adverb such as inte normally comes before the finite verb: eftersom museet inte är öppet. The participle remains later in the verb phrase: Jag visste att rummet redan var bokat.

Finally, participle agreement can show exactly what is being described even when the sentence is long. Train yourself to locate the subject before choosing the ending. In De två gamla husen är nyligen renoverade, the subject is plural, so renoverade is required regardless of the intervening words.

Practice Tips

1. Build four-form sets. Take five useful participles and write common singular, neuter singular, and plural examples: dörren är låst, skåpet är låst, dörrarna är låsta. Add the supine separately, such as har låst, so you do not confuse its job with the participle.
2. Retell one situation from three viewpoints. Use a result, an event, and a process: Maten är lagad; Maten blev lagad till slut; Maten lagas i köket. Ask what each sentence puts in the foreground.
3. Notice time expressions while reading. Mark duration phrases near vara passives and precise event times near s-passives. This is not an absolute rule, but it is a reliable way to develop a feel for the contrast.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Bli-Passive — contrasts the resulting state with the event or change that produces it.
• Also review: Swedish past participles and adjective agreement — these supply the forms used after vara and determine their endings.
• Compare next: The Swedish s-passive — used especially for actions, processes, routines, instructions, and event reporting.