förlorades

Förlorades is a Swedish verb form that serves as the preterite passive of the verb förlora, meaning to lose. It describes that something was lost in the past, without specifying who lost it. The construction is commonly used in formal or historical writing, where the agent responsible for the loss is unknown or not stated.

Grammatically, Swedish forms the passive by adding -s to the verb stem in present and past tenses. Therefore, the present passive is förloras (is lost), and the past passive is förlorades (was lost). The active past tense is förlorade (lost), and the past participle is förlorat (lost). The perfect passive can be expressed with a periphrastic construction such as har förlorats (has been lost) or har varit förlorat, depending on context, but in everyday usage the simple past passive förlorades is common in reporting past events.

Usage is typical in news reports, historical narratives, legal or administrative language, and other formal prose where an agent is not specified or is irrelevant. It is less common in casual speech, where active voice or alternative verbs like försvinna or gå förlorad might be preferred to convey a similar meaning.

Etymology traces förlorades to the verb förlora, which derives from older Scandinavian roots meaning to lose. The formation with -s reflects the Swedish passive morphology. Related forms include förlora (infinitive), förlorar (present active), förlorade (simple past active), and förlorat (past participle).

See also: förlora, förlust, passive voice in Swedish, bibliotek and archives terminology where items can be förlorades.