kohtaavat

Kohtaavat is a Finnish verb form meaning they meet or encounter. It is the third-person plural present indicative form of the verb kohdata, which covers meeting people, objects, or events, as well as encountering situations or experiences. The present tense conjugation of kohdata is: minä kohtaan, sinä kohtaat, hän kohtaa, me kohtaamme, te kohtaatte, he kohtaavat. The form kohtavat is used specifically when the subject is plural or when referring to they.

In usage, kohtaavat can describe physical meetings, chance encounters, or more abstract encounters such as obstacles or challenges. For example: He kohtaavat tuttuja kaupungilla (They meet acquaintances in the city); He kohtaavat toisensa (They meet each other); He kohtaavat vastoinkäymisiä (They encounter difficulties). The verb is common in everyday speech as well as in written Finnish and can appear in various sentence structures with different objects in the Accusative or Partitive case, depending on the nuance of the encounter.

Related forms include the noun kohtaaminen, which means an encounter or meeting, and the related verb forms in other tenses such as kohtasin (I met) or kohtaisivat (they would meet). Kohtaavat is thus a versatile present-tense form central to describing interactions and encounters in Finnish.