hoituvat

Hoituvat is a Finnish verb form that appears in standard language as a finite verb, and is most often encountered as the third-person plural present tense. It is not a separate lexical item on its own, but a surface form used with verbs that carry the semantic field of care, treatment, or related actions. The exact meaning of hoituvat depends on the infinitive verb it derives from and the context, with active and passive interpretations possible.

Morphology and syntax: hoituvat follows the common Finnish pattern where the third-person plural present tense ending is -uvat (part of the -vat/-vät family governed by vowel harmony). The stem in hoituvat comes from a verb related to care or treatment, such as hoitaa (to take care of) or hoitua (to be treated/cared for) in its respective voice. Because Finnish verbs can share forms across different lexemes, the same surface form hoituvat can correspond to different underlying verbs in different sentences.

Usage and meaning: In practice, hoituvat is used when talking about multiple subjects performing a care- or treatment-related action, or in some contexts describing subjects receiving care or treatment. The precise sense—active “they take care of” versus passive “they are treated/cared for”—depends on the infinitive verb selected and the syntactic construction of the clause. It is common in medical, caregiving, or social contexts to encounter this form.

Example: Potilaat hoituvat nopeasti. (The patients are treated quickly.)

See also: Finnish verb conjugation, present tense, passive voice, vowel harmony.