Vähendanud

Vähendanud is the past active participle of the Estonian verb vähendada, meaning “to reduce.” It denotes that someone or something has performed the action of reducing and is used with auxiliary verbs to form perfect tenses, or as an attributive participle describing a resultant state. The form reflects the activity of reducing rather than the result of being reduced.

Morphology and related forms: Vähendanud is formed from the infinitive stem vähenda- plus the suffix -nud. The corresponding passive past participle is vähendatud, meaning “reduced” as a result of someone else’s action. Other related forms include the present active participle vähendav (reducing) and the noun forms derived from the same root.

Usage: In Estonian, vähendanud appears most often in perfect tense constructions with the auxiliary olema (olema) to indicate completed reducing actions. For example, olen vähendanud oma kulusid translates to “I have reduced my costs.” As an attributive participle, vähendanud can describe a noun in a context where the reduction is already performed, though stylistically it is more common in formal or technical writing related to budgets, policy, and project planning.

Etymology and meaning: The word comes from the verb vähendada, whose root conveys the act of making something smaller or less. Vähendanud carries the nuance that the reducing action was carried out by the subject.

See also: vähendada, vähendatud, vähenduv. In contrast, otherwise similar participial forms in Estonian differentiate between active (vähendanud) and passive (vähendatud) meanings, as well as between ongoing (vähendav) and completed actions.