slippa

Icelandic

Noun

slippa

indefinite genitive plural of slippur

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish slippa, from Old Norse sleppa, from or related to Proto-Germanic *slīpaną (“to slide”).

Pronunciation

Audio: (file)

Verb

slippa (present slipper, preterite slapp, supine sluppit, imperative slipp)

to not have to experience (something unpleasant), to not have to deal with
Jag hoppas vi slipper regn imorgon
I hope we won't get rain tomorrow (I hope we won't have to experience rain tomorrow)
1. to not have to do, to get away (with not doing)
  Vi slapp städa köket innan vi åkte
  We did not have to clean the kitchen before we left (they let us leave without cleaning / did not force us to clean the kitchen before we left, we got away without cleaning the kitchen before we left – avoided the negative experience of cleaning the kitchen)
  
  Ni slipper städa. Vi fixar det.
  You don't have to clean up. We'll take care of it.
  - 1986, Magnus Uggla (lyrics and music), “Fula gubbar [Dirty old men]”‎^[1]:
    Han har blonderat sitt gråa hår, och lyft bort fett ifrån höft och lår, för att slippa hålla andan på Norderstrand, i jakten på en konfirmand.
    He has dyed his gray hair blond, and removed [lifted off/away] fat from his hips and thighs [from hip and thigh], so as to [in order to] not have to (deal with the negative experience of having to) hold his breath on Norderstrand [beach in Visby on Gotland], in the hunt for a confirmand [person undergoing religious confirmation, usually 13-15 years old].
2. (slang, by irony) to be unable
  Med en T-Ford slipper man åka fortare än 70 km/h
  With a Model T Ford, you can't go ("won't have to deal with going") faster than 70 km/h
(often with a particle, especially igenom, ut, or ur) to slip (move quickly/imperceptibly, or in a gliding manner, sometimes figuratively)
Lejonet hade sluppit ur sin bur
The lion had slipped out of its cage

Brottslingarna slapp igenom polisens nät
The criminals slipped through the police net

Det bara slapp ur mig
It just slipped out of me

Glaset slapp ur hans hand
The glass slipped from his hand

Usage notes

Can be thought of as "slip (from)" in the sense of "get away from" in (sense 1), which is likely how the sense developed, though the native intuition is just "not have to experience / deal with," non-figuratively.
Used as an auxiliary verb (hjälpverb) when used together with other verbs, which then appear in the infinitive ("to X" form). "Vi slapp att städa ..." – modifying the example above by adding an infinitive marker att (“to”) to städa (“clean”) – is also grammatical, though now uncommon.

Conjugation

Conjugation of slippa (class 3 strong)

	Active		Passive
Infinitive	slippa		—
Supine	sluppit		—
Imperative	slipp		—
Imper. plural¹	slippen		—
	Present	Past	Present	Past
Indicative	slipper	slapp	—	—
Ind. plural¹	slippa	sluppo	—	—
Subjunctive²	slippe	sluppe	—	—
	Participles
Present participle	slippande
Past participle	sluppen
¹ Archaic. ² Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

Related terms

References