Saattivat

Saattivat is the imperfect tense form of the Finnish verb saattaa, and it functions as the third-person plural form meaning “they accompanied” or “they escorted.” The primary sense of saattaa is to bring along or to guide someone or something from one place to another, often implying care, assistance, or duty. Consequently, saattivat is used when several subjects performed the act of accompanying someone in the past.

In usage, saattivat appears in sentences where a group accompanies a person or object to a destination. For example, He saattivat ystävänsä kotiin illalla (They escorted their friend home in the evening) or Hän ja hänen ystävänsä saattivat vanhan opettajan hautajaisiin. The construction typically involves a direct object that denotes the person or thing being escorted and a destination or endpoint.

The noun saatto, related in meaning and linguistic root, refers to the act of escorting or to a procession, such as a funeral procession or a formal escort. The verb saattaa and the noun saatto share a semantic field of movement with a group.

Notes on other senses: saattaa can also function as an auxiliary indicating possibility in present forms (for example, se saattaa olla totta, “that may be true”). Those epistemic uses rely on different inflections and are not part of the past tense plural saattivat’s primary meaning of accompanying.