kaventuvat

Kaventuvat is a Finnish verb form that corresponds to the present tense third-person plural of kaventua, meaning "they narrow" or "they are narrowing." Kaventua means to become narrower, to decrease in width or extent, and is used for both physical spaces and more abstract domains. The form kaventuvat is used when the subject is plural and performing the action in the present tense.

In usage, kaventua can describe natural or man-made narrowing of spaces such as a channel, a valley, a street, or a passage becoming narrower due to erosion, sedimentation, construction, or other processes. It is also widely used figuratively to describe diminishing options, opportunities, or margins, for example, "kaupankäynnin mahdollisuudet kaventuvat." The verb follows typical Finnish inflection patterns and takes the -vat/-vät suffix in the present tense to indicate third-person plural, with vowel harmony determining the exact form.

Kaventuvat appears primarily in written and spoken Finnish in contexts that require description of a narrowing process. The related noun kaventuminen refers to the process of narrowing, and kaventua is the infinitive form. The nuance of kaventua and its forms can range from neutral to technical, depending on the domain, with kaventuvat common in geography, hydrology, planning, and discourse about options. See also kaventuminen, kaventua.