ligga

Ligga is a Swedish verb meaning to lie down or to be located. In standard use it is an intransitive verb describing the position of a person or an object. The word also has a colloquial sexual sense, meaning to have sexual intercourse with someone, which is informal and context-dependent.

Conjugation and usage: The infinitive is ligga. The present tense is ligger, the past tense is låg, and the supine form is legat. The imperative singular is ligg. The perfect construction uses har legat (e.g., jag har legat). The verb is commonly used with prepositional phrases to indicate position, such as ligga i sängen (to lie in bed) or ligga på bordet (to lie on the table). An adjective form, liggande, can describe something that is currently lying down or is positioned horizontally, as in en liggande patient (a lying-down patient).

Etymology and cognates: Ligga originates from Old Norse liggja and is cognate with other Scandinavian forms such as Norwegian ligge and Danish ligge. It belongs to the Germanic vocabulary for “to lie” and shares historical roots with related verbs in the broader language family.

Notes on usage: In everyday Swedish, ligga is commonly used to describe physical positioning, resting states, or the location of objects. In casual speech, the sexual sense appears in expressions like ligga med någon, which should be used with awareness of the social context and audience due to its informal register. Beyond its literal sense, the verb frequently appears in colloquial phrases and idioms related to posture, position, and presence.