lyhentyä

Lyhentyä is a Finnish verb meaning to become shorter or to be shortened. It describes a reduction in length, duration, amount, or scope, and can refer to physical measurements as well as more abstract concepts such as time, distance, or text. The action is intransitive, while its transitive counterpart lyhentää means “to shorten something.”

Usage examples illustrate the difference between the intransitive and transitive forms. For the intransitive sense: Matka lyhenee kahdella tunnilla (The journey becomes shorter by two hours) or Tekstin pituus lyhenee, kun siitä poistetaan toistoja (The length of the text shortens when repetitions are removed). For the transitive sense: Hän lyhentää videon keston (He shortens the duration of the video).

Morphology and related terms. The verb forms include lyhentyä (the infinitive). Related nouns include lyhennys, meaning shortening or abbreviation, and lyhentäminen, the act of shortening. The past participle of the transitive verb lyhentää is lyhennetty, meaning shortened. The word lyhentyminen can be used to refer to the process of becoming shorter.

Usage notes. Lyhentyä is common in contexts involving measurements, schedules, text length, or other quantities that can be reduced. It is often contrasted with lyhentää, which explicitly involves shortening something that exists (e.g., a document, a duration, or a process) rather than a change that occurs on its own.

See also. lyhentää, lyhennys, lyhentäminen, lyhentyminen.