pidentää

Pidentää is a Finnish verb meaning to lengthen, extend, or prolong. It can refer to increasing physical length (for example a rope or garment), extending spatial dimensions (a road or distance), or increasing temporal duration (time or deadlines). The sense is broadly to make something longer or longer-lasting.

Pidentää is a transitive verb used with a direct object in a partitive or accusative form, depending on the context and emphasis. In everyday language, it often appears with objects such as matkaa (journey), aikaa (time), or kestoa (duration). Examples include statements that a journey or a time period can be lengthened, or that a project timeline should be extended. The verb also appears in more abstract uses, for instance in discussions about extending a deadline or widening the scope of a study.

Morphology and usage note: pidentää follows standard Finnish verb conjugation. As with many Finnish verbs, the form changes with person and number, and the object is commonly in the partitive case when the object is indefinite. The related intransitive form pidentyä means “to become longer.”

Related terms and antonyms: the opposite verb is lyhentää, meaning to shorten, with the intransitive form lyhentyä meaning to become shorter. A noun form meaning extension is pidennys (extension or prolongation). The related adjective pituus refers to length, from which pidentää etymologically draws its sense of increasing length.

See also: pidentyä, pidennys, lyhentää, pituus.