litistetään

Litistetään is a Finnish verb form that means “to flatten,” “to compress,” or “to make something thin or even.” It derives from the base verb litistyä, which is a perfective form implying a completed action. The word is typically used in contexts where an object is being physically flattened or made more uniform, such as flattening paint, compressing dough, or laying out a sheet of metal. In everyday Finnish, parlance might refer to physiotherapist treatment where a stiff muscle is “litistetään” to relieve tension. The form litistetään appears in both written and spoken Finnish, though it is less common in formal technical documentation; specialized texts on construction, printing, or materials science may use it to describe processes like laminating or roll‑compaction.

The verb is conjugated in the first‑person plural present (litistämme), but litistetään is generally understood as the third‑person plural present. It can also be employed in passive constructions, e.g., “Kukkakide litistetään” meaning “the flower pot is flattened.” Examples in literature include “Hän litistettiin kukat niin, että ne pysyivät paikallaan” (He flattened the flowers so that they stayed in place). Dictonary entries list litistyä under verbs related to shaping and flattening, and cross‑references include compaction terms such as kompaktio and laminointi. The term is part of Finnish’s rich morphological system that allows nuanced description of physical transformations.