Swedish verb· top 1,000 most common

leka

play/ˈleːˌka/

Meaning

play

In Swedish: hålla på med lek(ar)

Conjugation

Conjugation of leka (play)
Infinitive	att leka	to play
Present	leker	jag leker
Past	lekte	jag lekte
Supine	lekt	used after har / hade
Perfect	har lekt	jag har lekt
Past perfect	hade lekt	jag hade lekt
Future	ska leka	or: kommer att leka
Conditional	skulle leka	jag skulle leka
Imperative	lek!	a command
Present participle	lekande	-ing, used as an adjective
Past participle	lekt	used like an adjective, and agrees like one

Passive (-s form)

Passive of leka
Infinitive	lekas
Present	leks
Past	lektes
Supine	lekts

Group 2: -er verbs. Present -er, past -de or -te (after a voiceless consonant), supine -t. Swedish verbs don't change for person: jag, du, hon, vi and de all use leker. See the four verb groups explained.

Practise leka

1 / 2

Yesterday I … (leka). Which is the past tense?

leka in a sentence

leka i sandlådan
play in the sandpit
Barnen lekte
The children were playing
leka med hink och spade
play with a bucket and spade
Barnen lekte att de var tigrar
The children play-pretended that they were tigers
Barnen lekte cirkus
The children played circus [pretended they were in a circus or the like]
Han lekte med pennan
He played with his pencil
Han bara leker med dig
He's just playing with you
leka med ord
play with words

Questions

What does leka mean in English?

leka means “play”.

What is the past tense of leka?

The past tense of leka is lekte (“jag lekte”). The supine is lekt, used in “jag har lekt”.

What is the present tense of leka?

leker, the same for every person: jag leker, du leker, vi leker.

Origin

From Old Swedish lēka, from Old Norse leika, from Proto-Germanic *laikaną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg-.

Nearby common words

leka is number 768 in our frequency list. These words come just before and after it.

764sköta look after, nurse
765igång in motion, moving, running
766strax at once, directly
767inför in front of, before; while having the attention of, in preparation for
769flyga fly
770annorlunda different
771fiende foe, enemy
772fly flee

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Sources: Folkets lexikon (CC BY-SA 2.5) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), edited by Lingolib. Recording: Wikimedia Commons. Browse the dictionary