Kahjustavat

Kahjustavat is an Estonian attributive participle form meaning damaging or harmful. It is used to describe something that causes damage or has harmful effects. In grammar, kahjustatav is formed from the verb kahjustama (to damage) with the participial suffix -atav, and kahjustavat is the partitive singular form used before a noun in the partitive case.

The word typically appears before a noun to express a harmful or damaging characteristic in an indefinite sense. It is common in contexts related to health, environment, safety, and risk assessment. For example, phrases like kahjustavat mõju keskkonnale or kahjustavat ainet are used to refer to a harmful effect on the environment or a damaging substance, respectively.

Kahjustavat is closely related to other Estonian forms and words derived from kahjustama. The base adjective kahjustatav, meaning able to cause damage or harmful, contrasts with kahjulik, which more directly means harmful in a general sense. Nouns such as mõju (effect) and aine (substance) frequently appear in constructions with kahjustavat to convey the idea of damage or harm.

In summary, kahjustavat is a key form for expressing damaging or harmful characteristics in Estonian, functioning as the partitive singular form of the participial adjective kahjustatav and used before nouns to indicate harmful effects or damaging substances.