The Swedish imperative: kom, vänta, titta
How to give instructions and make requests in Swedish. The imperative is the verb stem, it lives on every sign in Sweden, and it isn't rude.
The imperative is the form you use to tell someone to do something: come, wait, look. In Swedish it is the shortest form a verb has, it is printed on every door, ticket machine and recipe in the country, and, importantly for English-speaking nerves, it is not impolite.
The form: the bare stem
The imperative is the verb's stem, with nothing added. In practice, two cases cover everything:
- Verbs whose present ends in -ar (group 1): the imperative is the same as the infinitive, ending in -a. Vänta! (wait), Titta! (look), Öppna! (open), Lyssna! (listen).
- Verbs whose present ends in -er or just -r: chop the -er or -r off the present form. Läser becomes Läs! (read), köper becomes Köp! (buy), äter becomes Ät! (eat), kommer becomes Kom! (come), går becomes Gå! (go, walk).
A tidy way to think about it: the present tense is the imperative plus -r or -er. Many Swedish textbooks actually teach the imperative as the base form of the verb for exactly this reason.
It's everywhere in public Sweden
Once you know the shape, you'll see imperatives all over: Tryck här (press here) on the bus door button, Dra (pull) and Tryck (push) on shop doors, Vänta on the pedestrian signal box. Recipes are written entirely in imperatives. So are instructions from apps, authorities, and furniture manuals from a certain large blue and yellow store.
It isn't rude
English speakers hesitate to say "Come!" or "Wait!" because bare imperatives can sound like barking. Swedish does not carry that weight. Vänta lite (wait a moment) is a completely normal, friendly thing to say to a colleague. Softening happens with small words, not with longer sentence structures: add lite (a little), gärna (by all means, feel free to), or tack (thanks) and you're being warm by Swedish standards.
- Vänta lite. Wait a moment.
- Kom in! Come in!
- Öppna fönstret, tack. Open the window, please.
There is no Swedish word that works like the all-purpose English "please", and tack at the end of a request is the everyday substitute. That's not rudeness, it's just how the language does politeness.
Hear it
Five short instructions, the kind you'll hear and use daily.
Swedish
Kom hit!
Vänta lite.
Titta här!
Öppna dörren, tack.
Läs och lyssna varje dag.
English
Come here!
Wait a moment.
Look here!
Open the door, please.
Read and listen every day.