Veedetakse

Veedetakse is an Estonian verb form meaning “is spent” or “are spent.” It is the present passive form of the verb veetma, which means “to spend” (time, money, energy, etc.). The form is used when the agent performing the spending is not specified or considered irrelevant, and the emphasis is on the duration or allocation of resources.

Grammar and usage: Veedetakse belongs to the passive voice and does not encode the subject’s number separately; it can refer to both singular and plural subjects. The tense is present. It is formed by attaching the passive suffix -etakse to the stem of veetma. In sentences, veedetakse is typically followed by a gerundive sense of what is being spent, such as aeg (time) or raha (money), or by a prepositional phrase indicating the activity in which the spending occurs.

Examples:

- Aeg veedetakse looduses. (Time is spent in nature.)

Beyond such impersonal constructions, veedetakse can appear in journalistic, academic, or formal prose to summarize how resources are allocated or how attention is devoted to a task, without naming the actor responsible for the action.

Related forms: veetma is the active base verb; veedetud is the past passive participle meaning “spent,” used in phrases like veedetud aeg (spent time). The verb’s passive form is one of several ways Estonian expresses impersonal or generalized statements about time and resource use.

See also: veetma, veedetud, passive voice (Estonian).