heittää

Heittää is a Finnish verb meaning “to throw” or “to cast.” It covers literal throwing of objects as well as various figurative uses. As a transitive verb, it typically takes a direct object referring to what is thrown, such as a ball, a stone, a fishing line, or other items. The action can be performed with different force and in different directions, and the verb appears in many everyday expressions.

In addition to its core, literal sense, heittää is used in a range of common collocations and idioms. Examples include heittää pois (to throw away), heittää siima or heittää viefo (to cast a fishing line), and heittää ilmaan (to throw into the air). It is also used in expressions like heittää vitsi (to tell a joke) and, informally, heittää juhlat (to host a party). Metaphorically, the verb can convey concepts such as “to throw money/time into something” or “to throw someone off.” The context often clarifies whether the sense is physical, discursive, or idiomatic.

Grammatical note: Heittää is inflected for tense, aspect, and mood, and forms passive constructions with the participle heitetty (for example, Pallo on heitetty, “the ball has been thrown”). The direct object generally appears in genitive or partitive case depending on definiteness and grammatical context.

See also: Finnish language, verb conjugation, Finnish idioms.