tänkte

Tänkte is the past tense form of the Swedish verb tänka, meaning to think. It is used to describe a thought process that occurred in the past, or to express past intentions and plans. The form is identical across all subjects in the preterite (jag tänkte, du tänkte, han tänkte, vi tänkte, ni tänkte, de tänkte).

Common uses include reporting past thoughts, indicating what someone planned or intended to do, and narrating sequences in the past. For example, Jag tänkte gå till affären can mean either “I was thinking of going to the store” or “I planned to go to the store.” Vad tänkte du egentligen på? asks “What were you thinking about?” and Jag tänkte att det var en bra idé translates as “I thought that it was a good idea.” The form is also used with infinitival clauses to express intention, as in Jag tänkte säga något men tystnade. In compound tenses, tänkt serves as the past participle, in phrases like Jag har tänkt mycket på det (“I have thought a lot about it”).

Grammatical notes include that tänka is a strong verb with the past participle tänkt. The present tense is tänker, the past tense is tänkte, and the supine used with perfect tenses is tänkt. The word functions broadly in everyday Swedish for both cognitive content (thinking) and intentionality (planning), and its meaning shifts with context from “to think” to “to intend.”