Yhdistäneet

Yhdistäneet is a Finnish verb form derived from yhdistää, meaning to unite, join, or combine. It functions as the past active participle in plural form and is used to describe people or groups that have performed the action of uniting. In English, it corresponds to “having united” or “those who have united.”

Formation and related forms: The form is built from the stem yhdistä- plus the participle suffix -neet, yielding a plural past active participle. It contrasts with the singular past active participle yhdistänyt (having united, singular subject) and with the passive past participle yhdistetty (united/combined, focusing on the result rather than the actors). The plural participle can appear in both periphrastic constructions with the auxiliary olla and in attributive or relative clauses.

Usage: Yhdistäneet is commonly used in perfect tense constructions with the auxiliary olla to indicate a past action by a plural subject, for example: Hallitukset ovat yhdistäneet voimat (The governments have joined forces). It can also occur in noun phrases to describe groups that have performed the action, such as “yhdistäneet ryhmät” in a relative clause meaning “the groups that have united.” In many contexts, Finnish speakers may prefer the passive form yhdistetyt when the emphasis is on the result rather than who performed the action.

Notes: While yhdistäneet is correct and productive, it is most frequent in formal or written language, such as news reports, academic texts, or legal documents. It translates roughly to “having united” or “those who have united,” depending on how it is used in a sentence.

See also: yhdistää, yhdistetty, yhdistävä, Finnish participles.