utövades

Utövades is the preterite passive form of the Swedish verb utöva, meaning to exercise, practice, or perform something. The form indicates that the action of exercising was carried out in the past and that the agent performing it is either implicit or introduced with av (by). Utöva can refer to exercising skills, applying a right, wielding power, or carrying out duties. The past passive utövades is commonly found in formal, historical, or legal writing, where the emphasis is on the action rather than on who performed it.

Grammatically, utöva has the present passive utövs and the past passive utövades. The perfect passive forms use har utövats (has/have been exercised). The agent can be specified with av, as in av kungen (by the king) or av myndigheterna (by the authorities). The construction allows describ­ing how authority, rights, or practices were exercised in a given period.

Etymology and related forms: Utöva is formed with the prefix ut- added to öva (to practice). The word is cognate with Norwegian utøve and Danish udøve, reflecting common Nordic roots for the concept of exercising authority or rights.

Usage notes: Utövades appears most often in historical narration, legal analyses, or formal reports. In everyday Swedish, speakers more commonly use active forms (utövade) or present passive (utövs) depending on the sentence’s focus. For example: “Under medeltiden utövades makten av kungen” or “Rätten att rösta utövades av medborgarna.” Both illustrate past actions of exercising power or rights.