sairastin

Sairastin is a Finnish verb form that translates to “I fell ill” or “I became sick.” It is the first-person singular imperfect (the past tense) form of the verb sairastaa, which means to fall ill or to become sick. The word is used in narrative contexts to describe a past experience of illness.

In its construction, sairastin follows the standard pattern for many Finnish -aa verbs in the imperfect: the stem sairast- plus the past tense ending -in. The form agrees with the subject in person and number, so minä sairastin, sinä sairastit, hän sairasti, we sairastimme, etc. It is strictly a verb form and is not used as a noun.

Etymologically, sairastaa is related to the noun sairaus (illness or disease) and conveys the sense of undergoing sickness. Sairastin appears primarily in written or spoken Finnish when recounting a past episode of illness, such as “Sairastin viime viikonlopun jälkeen” (I fell ill last weekend) or “Kun olin lapsi, sairastin usein.” While listeners and readers often use more general expressions in everyday talk, sairastin remains a standard, grammatically correct form for expressing that personal health event in the past.

Notes: Sairastin is distinct from sairastuminen (the noun form meaning the action or process of falling ill) and from other tense forms of sairastaa, such as sairastan (present) or sairastuin (past in a different grammatical nuance).