heikentävät

Heikentävät is a Finnish verb form that appears when discussing actions that reduce strength, quality, or effectiveness. It is the present tense, third-person plural form of the verb heikentää, meaning to weaken, impair, or deteriorate. The infinitive form is heikentää, and the base stem is heikent- from the adjective heikko (weak).

In addition to its finite form, the related adjective heikentävä (weakening) is used to describe something that has a weakening effect. The noun phrase heikentävä vaikutus (a weakening effect) is common in formal or scientific language. The word can be contrasted with vahvistaa (to strengthen) or parantaa (to improve).

Usage notes and examples:

- Hintavaihtelut heikentävät kauppasuhteita. (Price fluctuations weaken trade relations.)

- Kilpailutilanteet heikentävät markkinoiden toimintaa. (Competitive conditions weaken market functioning.)

- Heikentävä vaikutus voidaan pienentää paremmilla suojatoimenpiteillä. (A weakening effect can be mitigated with better protective measures.)

Etymology and related forms:

- Derived from the Finnish adjective heikko (weak) and the verb ending -entää, forming a causative-like verb meaning to cause to become weaker.

- The form heikentävät specifically agrees with a plural subject in the present tense.

- Other related forms include heikentää (infinitive), heikentävä (present active participle/adjective), and heikentynyt (past participle, weakened).

Overall, heikentävät is a common grammatical construction for describing plural actors or factors that diminish strength, capacity, or quality in various domains such as economics, health, and engineering.