pitivät

Pitivät is the third-person plural past tense form of the Finnish verb pitää. It is used to describe actions or states that occurred in the past and can translate to several English equivalents depending on context, such as kept, held, maintained, liked, or regarded.

Grammatical notes

- The base verb is pitää. The past tense forms for the different subject persons are: minä pidin, sinä pidit, hän piti, me pidimme, te piditte, he pitivät.

- Pitivät specifically marks the past tense for “they” or for a plural subject.

- Finnish verbs can express multiple meanings with this form, including physical keeping (he pitivät sanaansa = they kept their word), taking or holding something (he pitivät tauon = they took a break), or evaluative attitudes (he pitivät siitä = they liked it; he pitivät sitä totena = they regarded it as true).

Usage examples

- He pitivät sanansa. They kept their word.

- He pitivät kokouksen. They held a meeting.

- He pitivät tauon. They took a break.

- He pitivät siitä. They liked it.

- He pitivät sitä totena. They considered it true.

Context and nuance

Pitivät reflects past events and is commonly used across everyday, formal, and written Finnish. Because the verb pitää has multiple meanings, the exact translation of pitivät depends on the object or complement used with it. The verb also forms related past-tense constructions in compound tense forms with the auxiliary verb olla, for example, "ovat pitäneet" (have kept).