Maksavat

Maksavat is the third‑person plural present tense form of the Finnish verb maksaa, which means “to pay.” In Finnish conjugation, the ending ‑vat (or ‑vät after a vowel) is used to indicate that the subject is plural and the action is occurring in the present. Thus maksavat translates to “they pay” or “the (people, entities) pay” in English.

Grammatical aspects

In Finnish, verbs are inflected for person, number, tense, mood, and voice. The basic stem of maksaa is maks‑; the present indicative forms are minä maksan, sinä maksat, hän maksaa, me maksamme, te maksat, and he / ne maksavat. The vowel harmony rule determines whether the ending is ‑vat or ‑vät: after front vowels (ä, ö, y) the suffix becomes ‑vät, while after back vowels (a, o, u) it remains ‑vat. Consequently, the spelling in standard Finnish is “maksavat.”

Usage

Maksavat appears in a wide range of contexts, from everyday conversation (“He maksavat laskun” – “They are paying the bill”) to legal and financial texts where collective payment obligations are described. The form can also be used impersonally, referring to institutions or abstract groups: “Yritykset maksavat veronsa” (“Companies pay their taxes”).

Related forms

The infinitive maksaa yields other derived forms such as maksanut (past participle), maksaa‑minen (noun nominalization meaning “payment”), and maksajan (genitive of the payer). The negative present plural is eivät maksaa, and the conditional plural form is maksaisivat (“they would pay”).

Cultural references

Although primarily a grammatical term, “Maksavat” has occasionally been used as a title for songs, poems, or artistic projects that play on the theme of payment or reciprocity, especially in Finnish-language media. In such cases the word retains its literal meaning while acquiring metaphorical layers.

Overall, maksavat exemplifies Finnish verb morphology, illustrating how person, number, and vowel harmony interact to produce a concise, informative expression of collective action.