puhaltua

Puhaltua is a Finnish verb meaning to be moved by a current of air or wind, effectively to be blown or to have air move across something. The sense centers on the action of air itself rather than on a direct agent performing a blowing action on an object. In many contexts, puhaltua is used to describe natural or passive movement of air, such as air circulating or breath moving through a space. The word is related to the noun puhallus (a blow, puff) and to the transitive verb puhaltaa (to blow, to puff). In standard Finnish dictionaries puhaltua appears as the infinitive form, and its ordinary usage is generally more limited than that of puhaltaa, which more commonly expresses explicit blowing actions performed by an agent.

Usage and nuance: puhaltua tends to occur in descriptive, scientific, or poetic language, where the focus is on the movement of air itself—such as wind entering a room or air streams in a system—rather than on someone actively blowing. It can appear in constructions that treat air movement in a more passive or environmental sense, and it is sometimes discussed in discussions of Finnish verb classes and semantics as an example of how movement of air is expressed.

Related terms: puhallus (the act of blowing), puhaltaa (to blow, to puff), and tuuli (wind) are closely connected in meanings and usage.

See also: Finnish verbs, morphology of -ua verbs, puhallus, puhaltaa. References commonly cited include Kielitoimiston sanakirja and standard Finnish grammars.