riippuivat

Riippuivat is the imperfect indicative form of the Finnish verb riippua, which is intransitive and has two primary senses: to hang or be suspended, and to depend on or be contingent on something. As a past tense form, riippuivat describes a plural subject that performed the action or was in the state in the past.

In the physical sense, riippua means to hang from or be suspended from something. Riippuivat is used when the subject is plural, for example: Kellot riipuivat seinällä, meaning the clocks hung on the wall. This usage is common for objects that are attached or suspended and remain off the ground.

In the figurative sense, riippua expresses dependence or contingency. When describing how outcomes or conditions depend on other factors, the verb is often followed by sources of dependency, such as from or on. In the past plural form, an example is: Sopimukset riipuivat valtion rahoituksesta, meaning the agreements depended on government funding. In present tense, the form is riippuu (it depends).

Etymologically, riippua belongs to a core Finnish verb class and has related nouns and adjectives, such as riippuvuus (dependence) and riippuvainen (dependent). The past form riippuivat reflects standard Finnish verb conjugation for plural subjects in the imperfect.

Notes on usage: riippua is intransitive and typically does not take a direct object. The dependent sense uses case marking (often with jostakin or siitä) to indicate what the dependence is about. As with many Finnish verbs, context determines whether the meaning is physical hanging or figurative dependence. See also riippuvuudet and riippuvainen for related concepts.