Arvatakse

Arvatakse is an Estonian impersonal passive form of the verb arvata, meaning “it is believed” or “it is supposed.” It is used to present information as a belief or assumption shared by people in general, without identifying a specific source or agent.

Grammatically, arvatakse is the present tense, third-person singular passive form of arvata. The subject is indefinite, and the construction allows the speaker to hedge claims. Passive forms in Estonian are created with suffixes such as -takse, attached to the verb stem (arvata → arvatakse). The related past participle arvatud means “believed” and is used in other passive constructions or perfect forms.

Usage, nuance, and style: Arvatakse is common in media, scholarly writing, and formal speech when reporting beliefs, opinions, or commonly held assumptions. It often introduces a clause with et (“that”), as in Arvatakse, et ... meaning “It is believed that ...” The form signals that the claim is not originally asserted by the speaker and may reflect conventional wisdom or hearsay rather than a proven fact.

Related forms and equivalents: The past participle arvatud corresponds to “believed” in phrases like Arvatud on, and is used in different syntactic contexts. Other passive verbs with similar functions include öeldakse (“it is said”) and antakse (“it is given”), which express information attributed to non-specified sources.

Examples:

- Arvatakse, et ta on süüdi. (It is believed that he is guilty.)

- Arvatakse, et uus seadus toob kasu majandusele. (It is believed that the new law will benefit the economy.)