kehitti

Kehitti is the third-person singular past tense form of the Finnish verb kehittää, meaning to develop, to devise, or to cultivate. It is used to describe a completed development action by a subject in the past. For example: Hän kehitti uuden ohjelman. (He developed a new program.) Yritys kehitti strategian viime vuonna.

Etymology and form: Kehittää belongs to the class of Finnish -ttää verbs and is built on the stem kehittä-, related to the noun kehitys (development) and the verb kehittyä (to develop or to evolve). The past tense form kehitti is produced by adding the appropriate personal ending to the stem, corresponding to he/hën as the subject in narrative or report.

Usage notes: Kehitti is common in technical, scientific, historical, and journalistic writing when describing past developments, inventions, or plans. In contrast, kehittyä is intransitive and refers to developing or evolving in a more general sense, including progress or growth of a subject or system rather than someone creating something for others.

Related terms: The verb’s ecosystem includes kehittää (infinitive), kehittäjä (developer), and kehitys (development). The participial and other derived forms are kehittyvä (developing) and kehittänyt (developed, perfect aspect).

See also: kehittää, kehitys, kehittyä, kehittyjä.