rikkovat

Rikkovat is a Finnish verb form that corresponds to “they break” in English. It is the third-person plural present tense of the transitive verb rikkoa, meaning to cause something to break. In use, rikkovat describes multiple subjects performing the act of breaking an object, situation, or barrier, and the action can be either intentional or accidental.

Finnish expresses person and number in verb endings, and rikkovat is formed from the stem rikko- with the present-tense suffix -vat. Finnish does not have a distinct continuous aspect, so rikkovat can translate roughly as “they are breaking” or “they break,” depending on context. The direct object is marked by the appropriate case according to Finnish grammar, typically the partitive for indefinite objects or the genitive for definite ones, reflecting standard transitive syntax.

The verb rikkoa has several related forms. The passive or intransitive counterpart to describe the object becoming broken is rikkoutua, meaning “to become broken.” The participial forms include rikkonut, meaning “broken” as a participle. These forms are used in compound tenses and adjectival phrases.

Usage notes: rikkoa covers a wide range of contexts, from everyday accidents to deliberate acts. Rikkovat is used whenever a plural subject performs the action of breaking something, with the exact object and its definiteness determined by the surrounding sentence structure.

See also: rikkoa; rikkoutua; rikkonut.

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