Brukar dragen

Ann-Sofi Rosenkvist /

 

Last week’s blog post was all about how helping verbs describe what we “can, need, must, may” do. In this post, we’ll discuss the Swedish word brukar, or “usually”, which also functions as a helping verb. This verb comes in handy when talking about your daily routine, what you usually do in your free time, and more! We’ll even cover another way to modify sentences by using frequency adverbs, like often, always, sometimes, and never. 

First, to work with brukar, we need to remember to put our main verb in the infinitive form. If you need a reminder of how that works, check out my last post here where I break down that subject and provide you with a few examples: 

Eva brukar vakna tidigt.          Eva usually wakes up early. 

Hunden brukar gå ut tre gånger om dagen.
The dog usually goes out three times a day. 

Familjen brukar cykla tillsammans på helgerna. 
The family bikes together on the weekends.


You can also use brukar in question format with words like vad, när&#; ? 

-Vad brukar du göra på fritiden?          -What do you usually do in your free time?
-Jag brukar träffa vänner på fritiden.  -I usually meet fr

  • brukar dragen

    • Swedish: Brukar (a verb?)

    Göte said:

    In Swedish "bruka" can be used in all tenses, but in English only "used to" is available and other constructions need to be used in other tenses.

    Click to expand

    Interesting, in my (Swedish) mind, "I use to" sounds fine, but I see now that people consider it as incorrect. (Though the forum doesn&#;t allow me to post links.) You learn something new every day, I guess.

    Nitpicking: there is also an infinitive, as in "I did use to like it".

    Tjahzi said:

    Also, it&#;s worth noting that this usage is limited to present and imperfect (brukar and brukade). There are no infinite, future or prefect forms.

    Click to expand

    The supine (=perfect?) can be used as well.

    Some Google results:
    Jag har brukat användaTrafikverkets hemsida
    De gamla har brukat skäraett kors


    Finally, Mitch Hedberg&#;s pun on the pragmatics(?) of the word "used":
    "I used to do drugs. I still do drugs. But I used to, too."
    And to think he died of an overdose

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