söödetakse

Söödetakse is the present passive form of the Estonian verb sööma, meaning "to eat." It translates to "is eaten" or "are eaten" in English. The form is used when the agent performing the eating is unknown, unimportant, or intentionally omitted, yielding an impersonal or general statement about consumption.

Morphology and use: Söödetakse is formed from the verb stem söö- with the present passive suffix -detakse. In Estonian, this passive construction commonly signals that the action happens to the subject without specifying who performs it. The subject of a clause containing söödetakse is the thing that is eaten, while the doer remains unspecified. This makes the form frequent in formal, descriptive, or instructional contexts, such as guides, summaries of consumption, or general observations about eating patterns.

Grammatical notes: The Estonian passive voice, including pensamentos like söödetakse, does not encode person. It can be used with various nouns in the nominative to indicate what is eaten, while the agent may be left implicit or expressed with other constructions if necessary. The form is part of standard Estonian morphology and is widely understood in both spoken and written language.

Relation to other forms: The active counterpart is sööb (he/she/it eats). The passive form can be contrasted with periphrastic or agent-focused constructions when the speaker wishes to emphasize the action on the object rather than the actor.

See also: Estonian grammar, passive voice, conjugation of sööma.