pyytävät

Pyytävät is the third-person plural present indicative form of the Finnish verb pyytää, meaning to request, to ask for, or to beg. It translates to “they request” or “they are asking” in English and is used when the subject of the sentence is a plural group.

In Finnish, pyytää inflects for person and number, and pyytävät specifically marks a plural subject in the present tense. Other present-tense forms of the same verb are minä pyydän, sinä pyydät, hän pyytää, me pyydämme, te pyydätte, and he pyytävät. The verb typically takes a direct object in the partitive case, for example pyytävät rahaa (they ask for money) or pyytävät apua (they ask for help). The object case reflects Finnish’s general pattern for indefinite quantities or non-countable items.

The verb is also used in a common idiom, pyytää anteeksi, meaning to apologize or to ask for forgiveness. In this construction, anteeksi functions as the object of the act of apologizing rather than as a standalone noun in a direct object slot.

Usage notes include its compatibility with various subjects, including organizations or groups, where the plural form pyytävät correctly agrees with the subject. The nuance of pyytää, and thus pyytävät, ranges from formal requests to more casual inquiries, depending on context, politeness level, and intonation.

See also: pyytää, anteeksi.