katkotaan

Katkotaan is a Finnish verb form used to indicate that an interruption, cut, or break is occurring without naming the agent responsible. It is the present passive form derived from the verb katketa (to break, to be cut) or from related stems dealing with cutting or interruption. In standard Finnish, the present passive is formed with the suffix -taan/-ään, and katkotaan represents the form produced from a suitable stem with appropriate vowel harmony.

The function of katkotaan is to provide an impersonal, agency-free statement about a state or process. It is common in technical writing, public notices, and news or policy language where the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or intentionally omitted. The construction focuses on the occurrence of the interruption rather than on who causes it. It can describe interruptions to services, power supply, communications, or other ongoing processes.

Examples of use include sentences like: Yhteys katkotaan tilapäisesti. Tämä palvelu katkotaan varotoimenpiteenä. In such sentences, the subject is the system or process that experiences the interruption, while the doer remains unspecified.

Related terms in Finnish include katko (a break or outage), katkeaminen (the act or process of breaking), and katkaista (to cut off). Katkotaan contrasts with forms that name or imply a concrete agent, such as katkaistaan (the passive of katkaista) in contexts where the agent may be specified or emphasized.