Pilaantuisi

Pilaantuisi is a Finnish verb form meaning would spoil or would go bad. It describes hypothetical spoilage, especially of perishable goods, but can also apply to materials and environmental substances under unsuitable conditions. The form is derived from the intransitive verb pilaantua, meaning to spoil, rot, or degrade; pilaantuisi is the conditional mood form constructed with the stem pilaantu- plus the suffix -isi. It is most commonly used with a singular subject and in clauses that express a hypothetical situation, often introduced with jos (“if”) or kun (“when”).

In usage, pilaantuisi appears in technical writing on food safety, storage guidelines, or quality control, as well as in literary or explanatory texts that discuss potential outcomes under different conditions. It conveys that spoilage is not certain but contingent on factors such as temperature, time, moisture, or exposure to air.

Example: Jos ruokaa säilytettäisiin huonosti, se pilaantuisi nopeasti. This sentence illustrates how the form signals a conditional outcome rather than an actual event. The related verb pilaantua remains the base meaning, while pilaantuisi marks the hypothetical case.

See also pilaantua; related concepts include pilaantuminen (spoilage) and pilaantuneisuus (deterioration). The form is relatively specialized and is more common in formal or technical Finnish than in everyday speech.