esitetä

Esitetä is a non-finite Finnish verb form associated with the verb esittää, meaning to present, to demonstrate, or to perform. In standard usage, esittää is the active verb; esitetä is encountered mainly in grammatical descriptions as the passive or potential non-finite form relating to that verb. In practice, Finnish speakers rarely use esitetä in ordinary speech, and it appears most often in dictionaries, linguistic explanations, or formal writing that discusses Finnish morphology.

In contemporary Finnish, the action of presenting is typically expressed with finite or participial forms of esittää, such as esitetään (is presented) or esitetty (presented). The non-finite adjective-like form esitettävä (to be presented) is common in noun phrases and relative clauses, for example esitettävä ohjelma meaning “the program to be presented.” This construction is part of a broader set of -ttava/-ttävä forms that denote obligation or impending action, and it is widely used in official or technical language.

Etymologically, esitetä derives from the stem of esittää, with the suffixes used to form non-finite passive or related forms. For learners and language users, the practical distinction is that esittää is used for active presentation by a subject, while esitettävä and esitetty (as well as the finite passive esitetään) express actions or states concerning what is to be presented or has been presented, without specifying the agent.

Related terms include esittäminen (the act of presenting) and esitys (a presentation or performance). In summary, esitetä is primarily a grammatical reference form in Finnish, while everyday language relies on the active esittää and its standard passive and participial derivatives.