Kahjustab

Kahjustab is the third-person singular present tense form of the Estonian verb kahjustama, meaning to harm or injure. It is used to describe something or someone causing damage to a person, an object, health, or the environment. The sense can be literal or metaphorical and it appears in everyday speech as well as in formal writing.

Kahjustama is a transitive verb derived from the noun kahju, meaning harm or damage. In standard Estonian, its object is typically in the partitive case when the harm is viewed in a non-countable or ongoing way, for example: See kahjustab tervist (This damages health) or Vigane toode kahjustab tarbijat (A faulty product harms the consumer). The construction allows both concrete and abstract targets, such as health, property, or trust.

In usage, kahjustab appears in contexts ranging from health warnings and consumer protection to environmental reporting and legal language. It can be used with a variety of subjects, including people, products, policies, and phenomena, to express that they cause harm or damage. Metaphorical uses are common, for instance to describe actions or policies that undermine well-being, safety, or trust: Käitumine kahjustab usaldust (The behavior damages trust).

Related forms include kahjustama (infinitive), kahjustav (present participle), and kahjustanud (past participle). The term is standard in written and spoken Estonian and is widely understood in discussions of health, safety, environment, and consumer affairs.