Potkahti

Potkahti is a Finnish verb form that denotes a kicking action carried out in the past. It is the third-person singular simple past form associated with potkahtaa, a verb meaning to kick with the foot or to strike with the foot. The root potka- is related to the noun potku, which means a kick or kick-off, and the form potkahti appears in narrative and everyday speech to state that someone performed a kick previously.

In standard Finnish, potkahti is used to describe a concrete, physical kicking event by a specific subject. The form is often contrasted with potkaisi, which is the past tense form of potkaista, another verb in the same semantic field. While both describe kicking actions, their usage can reflect slightly different verb families or stylistic choices in a sentence. Potkahti can also appear in compound or descriptive constructions where the kicking action is a discrete event in the past.

Example: Mies potkahti pallon. This translates to “The man kicked the ball.” Beyond literal kicking, the root concept can appear in idiomatic or metaphorical expressions related to initiating action, though such uses depend on context and are less common than the literal sense.

See also: potkaista, potkahtaa, potku.