väcks

Väcks is the present passive form of the Swedish verb väcka, which means to wake someone else. In this form, the subject is the one who is being awakened, typically by an external agent or circumstance. The pattern is common in everyday Swedish and the -s ending is a standard way to form the present passive for many verbs.

In use, väcks often appears with an agent phrase introduced by av, such as an alarm or a person. For example, Hon väcks varje morgon av väckarklockan means she is awakened every morning by the alarm clock. The active counterpart of väcks is väcker (jag väcker honom = I wake him). The past passive form is väcktes, and the present perfect passive is väckts (Har väckts). These forms allow speakers to describe awakenings that have occurred in the past or that have relevance to the present.

Väcks is distinct from vakna, which is intransitive and refers to waking up oneself. Väcka takes a direct object (to wake someone else), while vakna does not. In many contexts, väcks can describe both human and non-human subjects being awakened, such as a house being awakened by noise or a city being awakened by sunrise, depending on how the sentence is framed.

Etymology traces väcka to the core Swedish verb family for wake and wake up, sharing roots with related Germanic forms. It remains a common, neutral term in both spoken and written Swedish, especially in descriptions of routines, alarms, and events that interrupt sleep.