kävelen

Kävelen is the first-person singular present tense form of the Finnish verb kävellä, meaning to walk. In English, it translates as “I walk” or “I am walking.” It is a basic, everyday verb used to describe walking on foot, either as a habitual action or an ongoing activity.

In Finnish, verbs inflect for person and number. The present indicative paradigm for kävellä includes: minä kävelen, sinä kävelet, hän kävelee, me kävelemme, te kävelette, he kävelevät. The infinitive is kävellä, and related forms include kävelin (past tense) and kävellyt (past participle). Kävelen is intransitive, typically requiring adverbials or directional phrases to specify location or destination (for example, “Kävelen kotiin” = I walk home, “Kävelen joka aamu puistossa” = I walk in the park every morning).

Usage and nuance: Kävelen can function as a standalone sentence when the subject is understood, and it commonly appears in narratives and everyday speech to convey movement by foot. The verb forms the core of many expressions about routine, travel, or physical activity; it can be combined with spatial cases to indicate direction, such as illative case forms like kotiin or paikkakuntaan.

Etymology and related forms: Kävellä is a native Finnish verb with a long historical presence in the language. Related nouns include kävely (a walk, walking) and the compound or derived terms such as kävelylenkki (a walking loop). The imperative form is kävele, used to tell someone to walk.