Fortsatte

Fortsatte is the simple past tense form of the Swedish verb fortsätta, which means to continue or to resume an action that had paused or was ongoing. The form is used for past actions and is typically paired with a subject, as in jag fortsatte, du fortsatte, han fortsatte. The infinitive is fortsätta, and the present tense is fortsätter. The modern perfect is formed with har fortsatt, where fortsatt is the past participle.

In standard usage, fortsatte describes that an activity or process continued after a point in time. It is common to say fortsätta att plus an infinitive to link to a following verb, for example, hon fortsatte att arbeta (she continued to work) or de fortsatte att diskutera (they continued to discuss). It can also stand alone in descriptive past statements, such as Efter pausen möttes gruppen igen och fortsatte arbetet (After the break the group met again and continued the work). The past participle fortsatt is used adjectivally to mean “continued” in phrases like en fortsatt diskussion (a continued discussion).

Etymology and cognates: fortsätta is a compound formed from fort- (forward) and sätta (to put/place), conveying the idea of moving forward. The verb has cognates in other Scandinavian languages, including Norwegian fortsette and Danish fortsætte, reflecting common Germanic roots for the concept of continuation.

See also: related uses of fortsätta with att, common collocations, and example sentences illustrating continued actions in narratives.