Kyetään

Kyetään is the present passive form of the Finnish verb kyetä, which means to be able or capable of doing something. As a passive form, kyetään is used in impersonal constructions where the subject is indefinite or generic, allowing statements about feasibility or possibility without specifying who performs the action. It is most commonly seen in written or formal Finnish, rather than in casual speech.

In terms of usage, kyetään expresses that a task or outcome can be accomplished under given conditions. It is aligned with modal meaning, but unlike the more everyday structures with voida (to be able) or its passive voidaan, kyetä emphasizes capability or feasibility rather than permission or simple possibility. Because it relies on a passive impersonal construction, kyetään often appears in instructions, guidelines, official reports, and other formal texts where the focus is on what can be done rather than who will do it.

Morphology and register notes: kyetä is part of a small set of Finnish verbs that can form a passive modal construction. The passive form kyetään is typically found in third-person impersonal clauses and tends to occur in more formal language. It is less common in colloquial spoken Finnish, where speakers may prefer more direct active constructions or the verb voida with an infinitive. See also Finnish grammar and the broader discussion of passive and modal expressions in Finnish.