Räägitud

Räägitud is a past passive participle in Estonian, formed from the verb rääkima (to speak, to tell). It functions as an adjective or part of a verb phrase and describes content that has been spoken, told, or narrated. In everyday language it conveys that the information or text has undergone a process of being communicated by someone else rather than being presented directly.

Grammatically, räägitud agrees with the noun it modifies in number and case. It can appear in compound verb forms as part of the perfect or pluperfect passive, for example in phrases like on räägitud (has been spoken). As an adjective it can also introduce participial phrases, such as räägitud lugu (the told story) or räägitud versioon (the told version of events). The participle is common in written Estonian when summarizing or reporting content that originated from speech.

Usage and semantics: räägitud signals that the content has been transmitted through speech or narration rather than presenting a verbatim original. It is frequently used in contexts of summarizing interviews, oral histories, or reported speech. In scholarly or journalistic writing, the term helps distinguish between a direct account and an account that has been retold or paraphrased by someone else.

Related concepts include kaudne kõne (indirect speech) and otsene kõne (direct speech). Räägitud often appears in discussions of narrative stance, source reliability, and textual adaptation, where distinguishing between spoken and written presentations matters.

See also: kaudne kõne, otsene kõne, narratiivne stiil.