märgatud

Märgatud is Estonian, functioning as the past passive participle of the verb märgata, meaning that something has been noticed or observed. In use, märgatud can act as a descriptive adjective, indicating that a person, event, or phenomenon has been witnessed or recorded.

Etymology and grammar: märgatud derives from märgata (to notice) with the past passive participle suffix. In Estonian, participles frequently serve as adjectives, agreeing with the noun they modify in number and case. As a result, märgatud can describe both singular and plural nouns and appears in various syntactic positions, including attributive and predicative use.

Usage: The form is common in formal, scientific, and journalistic language to convey that observations or measurements have occurred. It is often paired with nouns related to data, events, or phenomena to denote that these have been detected or recorded during observation or analysis. For example, phrases like märgatud muutused (observed changes) or uuringus märgatud trendid (trends observed in the study) are typical. In predicative constructions, it can appear with be-forms to report results, such as: on märgatud, et … (it has been observed that …).

Examples:

- Uuringus märgatud langus näitab toimemehhanismi muutumist.

- Märgatud nähtused on korduvalt dokumenteeritud kogu uuringus.

See also: märgata (to notice), märkima (to mark, to note) and other Estonian participles used as adjectives in scientific and descriptive writing.