klätt

Klätt is the perfect participle form of the Swedish verb klä, which means to clothe or to dress. It is used with auxiliary verbs such as har (have) or hade (had) to form perfect and pluperfect tenses, for example Jag har klätt mig (I have dressed myself) and Hon hade klätt barnen i varma kläder (She had dressed the children in warm clothes). In contemporary Swedish, klätt is not used as an ordinary attributive adjective; the corresponding adjective meaning “dressed” is klädd.

Forms and usage in grammar: The present tense of klä is klär, the simple past tense is klädde, and the non-finite form that appears in compound tenses is klätt. When used to describe clothing in a passive or adjectival sense, the adjective form is klädd (for example, den klädda mannen, the dressed man). The particle klätt cannot normally be used as a standalone attributive modifier; its primary role is within perfect and pluperfect verb constructions.

Etymology: Klätt derives from the Swedish verb klä, which in turn comes from the Old Norse klæði meaning clothes. The root is related to cognates in other Germanic languages, such as Danish klæde and English clothe/clad, reflecting a common historical development around clothing and dressing.

See also: klä, kläder, klädd, clothing terminology in Swedish.