painuivat

Painuivat is the third-person plural imperfect indicative form of the Finnish verb painua. The verb means to sink, descend, or go down, and painuivat is used when the subject performing the action is plural and the action occurred in the past.

Painua belongs to the Finnish verb type 1, which ends in -ua in the infinitive. Present tense forms are painun, painut, painuu, painumme, painutte, painuvat. Imperfect forms include painuin, painuit, painui, painuimme, painuitte, painuivat. The past participle is painunut, and the present perfect is formed with olla and the participle, e.g., kivet ovat painuneet.

Common usages describe physical sinking or descending. For example: Kivet painuivat veden alle. (The rocks sank beneath the water.) The construction can also describe objects or bodies moving downward, or subsiding in a broader sense depending on context.

Notes:

- Painuivat is an intransitive verb form; subjects that sink are typically inanimate or animate in a non-limiting way.

- The verb can be used in both literal and figurative contexts, though literal sinking is most common.

See also: painua, Finnish verb conjugation types.

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