proovinud

Proovinud is an Estonian verbal participle derived from the verb proovima, meaning to try or to test. It expresses that the act of trying or testing has been completed in the past relative to another event or time reference. The form is typically described as a past active participle formed from the stem proov- with the participial ending -inud, and it agrees in number and case when used attributively.

In usage, proovinud is relatively rare and tends to appear in formal, literary, or descriptive contexts. In everyday Estonian, the past passive participle proovitud is more common for indicating that something has been tested or tried. Proovinud can appear in nominalized phrases or within relative clauses to convey the nuance of “having tried” or “having tested,” providing a particular experiential emphasis on prior experimentation.

Morphology and distribution aside from common usage: the form functions as a participle rather than a finite verb on its own and can be embedded within larger sentences as a modifier or in participial phrases. Because proovinud is less frequent in contemporary prose, it is often discussed in linguistic descriptions of Estonian participle varieties and in historical or stylistic analyses.

See also: proovima, proovimine, proovitud, Estonian grammar, participles.