Puhtaks

Puhtaks is a grammatical form in Estonian, derived from the adjective puhas meaning clean or pure. In linguistic terms, puhtaks is the translative form of puhas and is used to express a change of state—roughly, transforming something into a clean state. It is not a standalone word but a morphological form that appears in verb-noun phrases and predicative complements.

In practice, puhtaks occurs in constructions with verbs that denote making or becoming, such as tegema (to make) or saama (to become). The form signals that the subject or object has entered the state of being clean as a result of the action. For example, ta tegi toa puhtaks would be understood as “he made the room clean” or “he cleaned the room,” and after washing, ta sai puhtaks can be understood as “he became clean.” The exact interpretation can depend on context and the surrounding predicate.

Grammatically, puhtaks illustrates how Estonian uses the translative case (-ks) to indicate a change of state. This differs from adjectives in the essive or nominative forms and from other case endings, highlighting Estonian’s system for expressing resultative states. Puhtaks is therefore primarily a tool for describing outcomes of actions, rather than a separate lexical item.

See also: Estonian grammar, translative case, puhas (clean/pure).