vika is the Swedish verb "to fold" — fold paper, fold laundry, fold a corner of a page — and, in its reflexive form vika sig, "to give way" or "back down." It is a strong verb of the i–e–i type, with principal parts vika – vek – vikit. The pattern is gentle: the infinitive and supine both keep i (vika, vikit), and only the past swings to e (vek). That single e is the whole trick — there is no rounding to ö or u here, unlike many strong verbs, so the temptation is the opposite: learners over-round it. Keep it flat: vika, vek, vikit.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vika | viker | vek | vikit | vik | Group 4 (strong), i–e–i |
The vowels frame the past: infinitive and present carry i (vika, viker), the past is the bare e-stem vek, and the supine returns to i (vikit). This i–e–i shape is the same family as skina – sken – skinit ("shine") and gripa – grep – gripit ("grip"). The agreeing past participle has two living forms: vikt / vikt / vikta (regular-looking, the everyday "folded": en vikt servett) and the older strong viken / viket / vikna, which survives mainly in the figurative bortvikna and in compounds. For "folded laundry" use vikt.
Hon viker servetterna till små svanar inför festen.
She folds the napkins into little swans for the party. viker — present.
Han vek brevet på mitten och stoppade det i kuvertet.
He folded the letter in half and put it in the envelope. vek — past, vowel e.
Jag har redan vikit all tvätt som låg på sängen.
I've already folded all the laundry that was on the bed. har vikit — perfect, supine vowel i.
Use 1: present, past and perfect
The three tenses follow the principal parts. The present viker covers both "folds" and "is folding." The past vek is a bare vowel-changed stem with a long, flat e. The perfect is har vikit; the pluperfect hade vikit.
Origamiläraren viker en trana på tjugo sekunder.
The origami teacher folds a crane in twenty seconds. viker — present.
Vi vek ihop tältet i regnet och blev genomblöta.
We folded up the tent in the rain and got soaked through. vek ihop — past, vowel e.
Hon hade vikit hörnet på sidan för att hitta tillbaka.
She had folded the corner of the page to find her way back. hade vikit — pluperfect, supine vikit.
Use 2: folding everyday things — vika tvätten
The most common real-life use is folding clothes and paper. Vika tvätten ("fold the laundry") is a household fixture; vika papper is folding paper; vika undan (literally "fold away") is "step aside, move out of the way." Keep the past vek flat.
Kan du vika tvätten medan jag lagar mat?
Can you fold the laundry while I cook? vika tvätten — fold the laundry.
Barnen vek pappersbåtar och seglade dem i pölen.
The children folded paper boats and sailed them in the puddle. vek — past with e.
Vik undan så att brandbilen kommer fram!
Step aside so the fire truck can get through! vik undan — imperative, 'move aside'.
Use 3: vika sig — yield, give way, back down
Reflexively, vika sig means "to give way, yield, bend" — a beam that bends under load, a person who backs down in an argument, a market that softens. The strongly idiomatic inte vika sig is "to refuse to back down, to stand firm."
Bordsbenet vek sig under all vikt och bordet rasade.
The table leg gave way under all the weight and the table collapsed. vek sig — past, 'gave way'.
Hon vägrar vika sig i förhandlingen, hur hårt de än pressar.
She refuses to back down in the negotiation, however hard they push. vika sig — 'back down'.
Facket har inte vikit sig en tum i lönefrågan.
The union hasn't budged an inch on the pay issue. har vikit sig — supine vikit.
Common Mistakes
❌ Hon vikade brevet på mitten.
Incorrect — vika is strong and takes no -ade ending. The past is the vowel-changed vek.
✅ Hon vek brevet på mitten.
She folded the letter in half.
❌ Jag har vek all tvätt.
Incorrect — after har you need the supine vikit, not the past vek.
✅ Jag har vikit all tvätt.
I've folded all the laundry.
❌ Han vök tältet i regnet. (over-rounding the past)
Incorrect — the past of vika is the flat vek with e, not a rounded ö. Don't borrow the ö-past of other strong verbs.
✅ Han vek tältet i regnet.
He folded the tent in the rain.
❌ Facket har vekit sig. (mixing the past e into the supine)
Incorrect — the supine is vikit with i, not the past's e.
✅ Facket har vikit sig.
The union has backed down.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Index of Strong Verbs by PatternB1 — A navigable index of the common Swedish strong verbs, grouped by ablaut pattern rather than alphabetically — i–e–i (skriva/skrev/skrivit), i–a–u (dricka/drack/druckit), a–o–a (ta/tog/tagit), and the irregular/contracted set (gå/gick/gått). Each group is a four-part table of principal parts with English cognate hints, because organising strong verbs by shared vowel pattern turns a scary list into a few learnable families.
- Strong Verbs: Overview and Principal PartsB1 — Strong verbs (Group 4) don't add a past-tense ending — they change their stem vowel across three principal parts: skriva–skrev–skrivit. The vowel moves in recurring patterns (ablaut) that Swedish shares with English: i–a–u is the same machinery as sing–sang–sung. This page teaches you to read principal parts, recognise the classes, and leverage the English cognate vowels so memorisation becomes pattern-recognition.
- Supine vs Past ParticipleB1 — The single Swedish verb-form distinction English has no equivalent for: the supine (har skrivit — fixed, invariable, only after ha) versus the past participle (en skriven bok, ett skrivet brev, skrivna böcker — fully agreeing, used as adjective and in the passive). English collapses both into one '-en' word; Swedish splits them, and confusing the two (*har skriven, *en skrivit bok) is a hallmark learner error.