förlorat

Förlorat is a Swedish word functioning as both the past participle of the verb förlora (to lose) and as an adjective meaning "lost" or "gone." It most often appears in perfect tenses with auxiliary verbs, and it can also modify a noun when used as an adjective in predicate or attributive position.

Grammatical forms and usage

The verb förlora has the basic forms: infinitive förlora, present förlorar, preterite förlorade, and the participle form förlorat. In perfect tenses you typically see har förlorat or hade förlorat, as in Jag har förlorat min plånbok or Vi hade förlorat honom i stan. As an adjective, the participle agrees with the noun in number and gender: en förlorad nyckel (a lost key), två förlorade nycklar (two lost keys), bilen är förlorad (the car is lost).

Usage notes

Förlorat can refer to tangible things (keys, money, documents) as well as more abstract losses (till exempel förlorat förtroende, lost trust). It is also used in passive-like constructions to indicate a state resulting from loss, such as "bilen är förlorad" (the car is lost). In everyday language, other Swedish terms may be preferred for certain contexts, for example försvunnen for “missing” people or saker when the emphasis is on disappearance rather than the act of losing.

Related terms

The related verb is förlora, with its various inflected forms. The concept of loss spans multiple contexts, from practical omissions to metaphorical losses like time or reputation.