huuhdotaan

Huuhdotaan is the present passive form of the Finnish verb huuhdota, which means to rinse, wash away, or flush with water in order to remove residue or impurities. The form huuhdotaan is used when the subject of the sentence is acted upon by an unspecified agent, and it is common in instructions, procedures, and descriptive texts.

Grammatically, huuhdotaan belongs to the class of -ota verbs in Finnish. The present passive is formed with the suffix -taan, and it conveys an impersonal or general sense of action. In everyday Finnish, the passive form is frequent in technical, educational, and formal writing to describe steps without naming who performs them.

Usage and contexts include laboratory work, cooking and food preparation, cleaning and maintenance, and industrial or technical documentation. It often appears in procedural sentences where the emphasis is on the process rather than the actor, such as when describing how materials should be treated or cleaned.

Examples:

- Aineet huuhdotaan useita kertoja puhtaalla vedellä. Translation: The substances are rinsed several times with clean water.

- Näyte huuhdotaan seuraavaksi, ennen kuin se siirretään tulostimeen. Translation: The sample is rinsed next, before it is transferred to the printer.

- Likainen liuos huuhdotaan pois suodattimesta. Translation: The dirty solution is rinsed away from the filter.