bli + Past Participle

Become Passive

Level 3

Use bli + past participle to show that something is being done or becomes a certain way. It focuses on the action or event.

How It Works

The bli-passive is one of the two main ways to form the passive voice in Swedish, the other being the s-passive. The bli-passive is dynamic and focuses on the action or the process of change.

Structure:
Subject + bli (conjugated) + Past Participle + (optional: av + Agent)

The verb bli is conjugated according to the tense:

  • Present: blir
  • Past (Preterite): blev
  • Perfect: har blivit
  • Pluperfect: hade blivit
  • Future: kommer att bli / ska bli

The past participle acts like an adjective and must agree with the subject's gender and number. The endings vary depending on the verb group:

  • First-group weak verbs use endings like -ad (en-words), -at (ett-words), and -ade (plural). Example: målad, målat, målade. Other weak patterns include stängd/stängt/stängda and sydd/sytt/sydda.
  • Strong verbs have their own patterns, often ending in -en (en-words), -et (ett-words), and -na (plural). Example: skriven, skrivet, skrivna.

Usage:
Use the bli-passive when you want to emphasize that an action is happening, happened, or will happen to the subject. It's often used to describe a specific event. If you want to mention who or what performed the action (the agent), you use the preposition av.

Contrast with other passives:

  • bli-passive (action): Brevet blev skickat igår. (The letter was sent yesterday - focuses on the event of sending).
  • s-passive (here a general practice): Brev skickas varje dag. (Letters are sent every day - a general practice).
  • vara-passive (state): Brevet är skickat. (The letter is sent - presents the letter as already sent; its exact present location is not encoded).

The Passive Alternatives Overlap
Brevet skickades igår describes a particular past event with s-passive. Repeated or generic actions often favor s-passive, but the choice also depends on the verb and on what the speaker presents as a change or result.

An av-phrase does not force bli. Huset är byggt av en lokal firma presents an existing result and names its builder. Dörren var stängd av vaktmästaren kl. 17 can describe the state at that time; blev stängd places the closing event there. Do not reject vara merely because an agent is named.

English being does not correspond to a separate Swedish progressive form here. Huset blir målat just nu is understood through the verb and just nu; bli-passive itself is not a universal marker of an action currently in progress.

Examples (5)

  1. Huset blir målat just nu.

    The house is being painted right now.

    Word by Word: The house becomes painted just now.

    Present tense (blir) with an ett-word (huset), so the participle is målat.

  2. Jag blev bjuden på festen.

    I was invited to the party.

    Word by Word: I became invited to the party.

    Blev marks the past. Bjuden is the common-gender singular participle used for the person referred to by jag. Jag is a pronoun, not an en-noun.

  3. Alla biljetter har redan blivit sålda.

    All the tickets have already been sold.

    Word by Word: All tickets have already become sold.

    Perfect tense (har blivit) with a plural subject (biljetter), so the participle is sålda.

  4. Patienten kommer att bli opererad imorgon.

    The patient will be operated on tomorrow.

    Word by Word: The patient comes to become operated tomorrow.

    Kommer att bli presents a future operation. This can describe a scheduled operation, but the construction itself does not require a deliberate plan.

  5. Filmen blev regisserad av en berömd regissör.

    The movie was directed by a famous director.

    Word by Word: The movie became directed by a famous director.

    Here, the agent (the doer of the action) is included using av.

Common Mistakes

  • Forgetting to make the past participle agree with the subject.

    Brevet blev skickad igår.
    Brevet blev skickat igår.

    Brevet is an ett-word, so the past participle must end in -t (skickat), not -d (skickad), which is for en-words.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

bli + Past ParticipleLevel 3Become Passive

Learn This First

To learn the bli-passive, you first need to know how to form past participles, as they function like adjectives describing the subject in this construction. You also need to be comfortable conjugating the verb 'bli' (to become) across different tenses and understand how to use 'av' to identify who is performing the action.

Words in This Pattern

bli