spörja

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish spyria, from Old Norse spyrja, from Proto-Germanic *spurjaną. Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål spørre, Norwegian Nynorsk spørje, spørja, Danish spørge, Icelandic spyrja, Faroese spyrja, Dutch speuren, German spüren, Luxembourgish spieren, English speer, speir, spere and Scots speir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [²s̪pœ̞rːjä]

Verb

spörja (present spörjer, preterite sporde, supine sport, imperative spörj)

1. (dated, poetic) to ask

   Skall ni verkligen bli läkare? sporde hon en dag

   Are you really becoming a doctor? she asked one day

   • 1929, Evert Taube, "Balladen om briggen "Blue Bird" av Hull"

     - Hur var namnet på skutan?
     Han sporde och slog
     nio supar i spetsiga glas.
     - Briggen Blue bird.
     Det tionde glaset han tog,
     och han slog det mot golvet i kras.

     - What was the name of the ship?
     He asked and poured
     nine drinks in pointy glasses.
     "The brig Blue Bird."
     The tenth glass he took,
     and he threw it into the floor.

2. (dated, poetic) to learn, to get news (after having asked around, through rumors, or the like)

   han hade sport att påvens munskänk var död

   he had learned that the pope's cupbearer was dead

Conjugation

Conjugation of spörja (weak)

	Active		Passive
Infinitive	spörja		spörjas
Supine	sport		sports
Imperative	spörj		—
Imper. plural1	spörjen		—
	Present	Past	Present	Past
Indicative	spörjer	sporde	spörjs, spörjes	spordes
Ind. plural1	spörja	sporde	spörjas	spordes
Subjunctive2	spörje	sporde	spörjes	spordes
	Participles
Present participle	spörjande
Past participle	spord
1 Archaic. 2 Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

Synonyms

• erfara
• fråga

Related terms

• spörsmål
• tillspörja

References

• spörja in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• spörja in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• spörja in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• pröjsa