Läks

Läks is the past tense form of the Estonian verb minema, meaning to go. It is used to describe that someone went somewhere in the past, as part of narration or a statement about a completed action.

The six past tense forms of minema are: läksin (I went), läksid (you went, singular), läks (he/she/it went), läksime (we went), läksite (you went, plural), and läksid (they went). The forms for second person singular and third person plural are the same, which can require context to determine the subject.

In everyday Estonian, läks is common in both spoken and written language. It is typically used with time expressions such as eile (yesterday) or täna (today) to situate the action in the past, though exact tense information is conveyed by the verb form itself. For example, Ta läks kooli eile means “He went to school yesterday,” and Ma läksin tööle varahommikul means “I went to work early this morning.”

Usage note: as a past tense form, läks is contracted within longer verb clusters and can appear in narratives, reports, and casual conversation. Its meaning is strictly related to movement from one place to another or to the act of leaving, rather than other senses of “go” that may be expressed with different constructions in Estonian.

Related topics include the present tense forms of minema, regional variations in spoken Estonian, and how past tense interacts with aspect and time expressions in Estonian grammar.