kuunteli

Kuunteli is a Finnish verb form meaning "listened" or "was listening," derived from the infinitive kuunnella, "to listen." It is the third-person singular imperfect (past) indicative form, used to describe a completed or ongoing listening action in the past. For example, Hän kuunteli radiota koko illan translates to "He listened to the radio all evening."

In Finnish, the past tense forms of kuunnella are built around the stem kuunnell-. Other forms in the past tense include kuuntelin (I listened), kuuntelit (you listened), kuuntelimme (we listened), kuuntelitte (you listened), and kuuntelivat (they listened). The past participle form is kuunnellut, which is used with perfect tenses, as in Olen kuunnellut for "I have listened." The word kuunteli therefore functions as a finite verb form within a sentence, independently indicating person and tense.

Use of kuunteli is common in narrative prose, journalism, and everyday speech when recounting events from a previous time. It should be distinguished from present-tense forms such as kuuntelee (“listens”) or from other tense-mood forms in longer verb constructions. While kuunteli itself is specifically a past-tense form, the related verb kuunnella covers a broad range of listening-related meanings, including habitual, ongoing, or completed listening actions depending on context.