kaipaa

Kaipaa is the third-person singular present indicative form of the Finnish verb kaivata, meaning to long for, miss, or feel a need for something. As a finite verb, kaipaa expresses that the subject (he or she) desires or requires something, and it typically governs a complement in the partitive case or a subordinate clause introduced by että.

Common uses include longing for a person, an object, or a situation: Hän kaipaa ystävää; Hän kaipaa kahvia; Hän kaipaa rauhaa. The phrase can also appear with adverbs of time: Hän kaipaa nyt rauhaa. The noun form kaipaus denotes longing or nostalgia, and the adjective kaipaava describes someone who is longing.

Kaipaa is a regular inflected form and forms the basis of many common expressions in everyday Finnish. It contrasts with more direct words for “want” (haluta) in nuance, tending to express emotional longing rather than practical need.

See also: kaivata, kaipaus, kaipaava.