pehmehennetään

Pehmehennetään is a Finnish verb form that expresses the passive voice in the present tense. It is the present passive form of the verb pehmehentää, which means to soften or make softer. In use, the subject of the clause is the entity that undergoes the action of becoming softer.

Grammar and formation

In Finnish, the present passive is formed by adding the appropriate passive suffix to the verb stem. For pehmehentää, the third-person singular present passive form is pehmehennetään. The subject is typically omitted or stated explicitly, as the action focuses on what is being softened rather than who is performing it. The form reflects a general, nonagentive process.

Usage and contexts

Pehmehennetään can be applied to physical properties, such as materials or textures, where a process reduces hardness or stiffness—for example, muovia pehmehennetään lämpökäsittelyllä (the plastic is softened by heat treatment). It can also be used metaphorically to describe softening of tone, style, or content in communication, writing, or editing—for instance, viestinnän sävyä pehmehennetään (the tone of the communication is softened) to appear more conciliatory or user-friendly.

Related forms and notes

The active counterpart is pehmehentää (to soften). The noun form describing the process would be pehmehennys. Pehmehennetään thus appears in technical, instructional, or descriptive text to denote that a softening process is taking place.