Osteta

Osteta is a Finnish-language term used in grammatical analysis to refer to a verb-stem derived from the verb ostaa, meaning to buy. It is not a standalone dictionary entry but a morphological stem that appears when Finnish verbs form the passive voice and related derivatives. In standard Finnish, the present passive is built on a stem such as osteta-, producing forms like ostetaan (is bought / are bought) in common usage. The same stem appears in other passive and participial formations.

The osteta stem also participates in forms such as past passive and participles. For example, the past passive is ostettiin (was/were bought), and the past passive participle used as a property descriptor is ostettu (bought). The same root yields the adjectival form ostettava, meaning “to be bought” or “to be purchased,” which is used to describe items that are meant to be bought, as in ostettava tavara (an item to be bought). These forms illustrate how the osteta stem functions across different tenses and modalities in Finnish.

Usage notes emphasize that osteta itself is not a standalone word with a separate meaning; rather, it is a base that grammar describes when explaining the passive voice and related formations of the verb ostaa. Learners typically encounter osteta in the context of inflected forms such as ostetaan, ostettiin, ostettu, and ostettava, rather than as an independent lexeme.

See also: Ostaa, Osto, Ostos, Finnish grammar, Passive voice.