heikentäviksi

Heikentäviksi is a Finnish grammatical form used to express a change into a weaker state. It is the translative plural form of the adjective or participle heikentävä, which means “weaken­ing” or “causing weakening.” The translative case in Finnish marks a transformation into a new state, and the plural ending -viksi indicates that the subject is plural. As a result, heikentäviksi is most often found in formal or technical text describing how multiple elements become weaker, rather than in everyday speech.

Formation and usage notes: The base form is heikentävä (weaken­ing). To form the translative plural, the ending -viksi is added. For a singular subject, the corresponding singular translative form would be heikentäväksi. The construction is typical in contexts such as science, engineering, risk assessment, and environmental descriptions, where a state change is described for a group of items or phenomena. In sentences, the complement heikentäviksi functions like a predicate in the translative, for example after verbs like muuttua (to become).

Examples: Ravinnon puute voi johtaa kasvien muuttumiseen heikentäviksi. Tässä tutkimuksessa materiaalit voivat muuttua heikentäviksi altistuessa tietyille kemikaaleille. Kasvit muuttuvat heikentäviksi, kun olosuhteet eivät ole optimaaliset.

See also: Finnish grammar, translative case, participles.