hävisin

Hävisin is the first-person singular past tense form of the Finnish verb hävitä. The verb hävitä has two common senses: to disappear or vanish, and to be defeated or to lose in a contest. Therefore hävisin can mean “I disappeared” or “I lost,” depending on the context and the object of the verb.

Grammatically, hävisin is the indicative mood, past tense, active voice. The stem is hävi- with regular past tense endings. Conjugation in the past is: minä hävisin, sinä hävisit, hän hävisi, me hävisimme, te hävitte, he hävisivät. The third-person form hävisi is widely used in narration. The related noun häviö means loss or defeat, while the participle hävittänyt or hävinnyt can appear in compound tenses and as an adjective meaning “disappeared” or “lost.”

Usage notes: the most common sense of hävisin is “I lost” in a competition, game, or other contest. Examples: Minä hävisin pelin. I lost the game. Me hävisimme turnauksen. We lost the tournament. Hän hävisi taistelun. He/She lost the battle. The sense “to disappear” exists but is less frequent in everyday speech; in many cases a speaker would use kadota or haihtua rather than hävitä for disappearance.

See also: häviö (loss/defeat), hävitä (to disappear or to be defeated), hävinnyt (disappeared, lost).