Viedä ("to take away, to carry off") is a Type 2 verb — infinitive in -dä on the diphthong ie — with no consonant gradation but a contracting past. The present rides on the plain stem vie-; the trap is the past, where ie collapses to e before the -i- marker: vein ("I took"), never *viein. And like its partner tuoda, viedä encodes direction. Finnish grammaticalises deixis: viedä is "take away from here", the exact mirror of tuoda "bring toward here". English "take" hides this; in Finnish the choice of verb already places the speaker.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | 1sg present | 3sg past | Past participle | Passive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| viedä | vien | vei | vienyt | viedään |
Viedä is a front-vowel verb, so every ending harmonises to the front: -dä, -mään, -dään, -köön. (Compare the back-vowel tuoda: -da, -maan, -daan, -koon.)
Present and past (indicative)
The present stem vie- takes endings directly; the bare 3rd person is just vie. For the past, ie → e, so the whole past paradigm is built on vei-.
| Person | Present | Past (imperfect) |
|---|---|---|
| minä | vien | vein |
| sinä | viet | veit |
| hän | vie | vei |
| me | viemme | veimme |
| te | viette | veitte |
| he | vievät | veivät |
| negative | en vie | en vienyt / emme vieneet |
Vien roskat pihalle mennessäni.
I'll take the trash out to the yard on my way.
Vein koiran lenkille jo aamulla.
I took the dog for a walk already in the morning.
Vievätkö he lapset kouluun autolla vai kävellen?
Do they take the kids to school by car or on foot?
Perfect and moods
The compound tenses use olla plus the participle vienyt (plural vieneet): olen vienyt ("I have taken"), olin vienyt ("I had taken"). Front harmony gives -nyt / -neet here.
| Person | Conditional | Imperative |
|---|---|---|
| minä | veisin | — |
| sinä | veisit | vie! |
| hän | veisi | vieköön (formal) |
| me | veisimme | viekäämme (formal) |
| te | veisitte | viekää |
| he | veisivät | viekööt (formal) |
| negative | en veisi | älä vie / älkää viekö |
The conditional contracts just like the past: veisin ("I would take"). The imperative keeps the full stem: vie! ("take it away!"). The potential vienee ("may take", literary) is rare in speech.
Veisin sinut mielelläni asemalle, mutta auto on huollossa.
I'd gladly take you to the station, but the car's in the shop.
Vie tuo laatikko ullakolle, se on tiellä täällä.
Take that box up to the attic, it's in the way here.
Passive
| Form | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| present | viedään | ei viedä |
| past | vietiin | ei viety |
| perfect | on viety | ei ole viety |
| conditional | vietäisiin | ei vietäisi |
Potilas vietiin heti leikkaukseen.
The patient was taken straight into surgery.
Rection: what viedä governs
Viedä takes an object plus, usually, a destination in the illative (-Vn / -seen) or a recipient in the allative (-lle):
- destination: vien kirjan kirjastoon ("I take the book to the library")
- recipient: vein *hänelle kukkia ("I took *her some flowers")
Vein hänelle kukkia sairaalaan.
I took her some flowers to the hospital.
Two very common idioms: viedä aikaa ("to take time") and viedä mennessään ("to sweep away, carry off").
Muutto vie enemmän aikaa kuin luulin.
The move is taking more time than I thought.
Tulva vei mennessään koko sillan.
The flood swept away the entire bridge.
Common Mistakes
❌ Viein koiran lenkille jo aamulla.
Incorrect — the past contracts: vein (ie → e), not *viein.
✅ Vein koiran lenkille jo aamulla.
I took the dog for a walk already in the morning.
❌ Tuo roskat ulos, ole hyvä.
Incorrect if it leaves the speaker — moving something away is viedä.
✅ Vie roskat ulos, ole hyvä.
Take the trash out, please.
❌ Olen viennyt sen jo kirjastoon.
Incorrect — the participle has one n: vienyt, not *viennyt.
✅ Olen vienyt sen jo kirjastoon.
I've already taken it to the library.
❌ Vein kirjan kirjastossa.
Incorrect — a destination takes the illative, not the inessive: kirjastoon.
✅ Vein kirjan kirjastoon.
I took the book to the library.
Key Takeaways
- Type 2, contracting past: stem vie-, but ie → e before -i- → vein, vei; the conditional contracts too (veisin).
- Participle vienyt (pl. vieneet) — single -n-, front-vowel -nyt; drives perfect, pluperfect and negative past.
- Passive on vie-: viedään, vietiin, viety.
- Rection: object + illative destination (kirjastoon) or allative recipient (hänelle); deictically "take away", the mirror of tuoda.
Now practice Finnish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- tuoda ('to bring')A2 — Full conjugation and usage of tuoda ('to bring here'), a Type 2 verb with the contracting past toin — the deictic mirror of viedä ('take away').
- Model Verb Type 2: syödä — Full ConjugationA2 — The complete paradigm of syödä (to eat), the model for Type 2 -da/-dä verbs: bare-stem 3rd person syö and the contracting past söi.
- Past of Type 2: söi, joi, sai, veiB2 — Type 2 long-vowel/diphthong stems contract with the past -i-: saada→sai, syödä→söi, juoda→joi, viedä→vei, plus tehdä→teki, nähdä→näki.
- Illative -Vn / -hVn / -seen: 'into'B1 — The illative means 'into' in three shapes: -Vn (taloon), -hVn (maahan), -seen (huoneeseen); it pairs with motion verbs and keeps the strong grade.
- Motion Verbs and Their CasesA2 — Finnish motion verbs pick a direction case: goal (illative/allative), source (elative/ablative), place (inessive/adessive) — plus mennä + -maan for purpose.