Pysäytti

Pysäytti is the past tense, third-person singular form of the Finnish verb pysäyttää, meaning to stop or bring to a halt. It is a transitive verb used to indicate that someone or something caused another thing to stop.

In grammar, pysäytti is an active, indicative form. It appears in past narration to describe a completed action, as in “Kuljettaja pysäytti auton” (The driver stopped the car). Related forms include pysäytän (I stop), pysäytät (you stop), pysäyttivät (they stopped), and the infinitive pysäyttää. The past passive form is pysäytetty, meaning “stopped” or “has been stopped.” The word often governs a direct object that receives the stopping action, such as a vehicle, person, or process.

Usage notes emphasize that pysäytti conveys a causative action—someone or something causes another to stop. It can refer to stopping movement, a process, or even an interruption in activity or traffic. In law enforcement contexts, pysäyttää can mean to stop a vehicle or to arrest, with pysäytti as the corresponding past tense form in reported speech or narration.

Etymology traces pysäyttää to the Finnish stem pysä- with the causative suffix -yttää, forming a transitive verb meaning “to cause to stop.” Related noun forms include pysäytys (a stop or stopping) and pysähtyä (to stop oneself, to halt). Pysäytti thus functions as a common, standard past-tense verb form within Finnish verb conjugation.