sairastuivat

Sairastuivat is the third-person plural past tense form of the Finnish verb sairastua, which means to fall ill or to become sick. The verb is intransitive and describes the onset of illness in a person or animal. The form sairastuivat indicates that a group or multiple subjects became ill in the past.

Usage of sairastuivat appears in narrative and reporting contexts, such as news, health bulletins, school or workplace communications, and epidemiological notes. It is commonly followed by a disease or illness expressed in the appropriate case, for example with flu or other illnesses: sairastua influenssaan (to fall ill with influenza) or sairastua flunssaan (to catch a cold). In Finnish, the transcription and case marking reflect the illness as the state that the subjects entered.

Examples:

- Useat koululaiset sairastuivat influenssaan viime viikolla. Translation: Several schoolchildren fell ill with influenza last week.

- Tutkimukseen osallistuneet sairastuivat koronan vuoksi, ja tutkimus jouduttiin keskeyttämään. Translation: Those who participated in the study fell ill due to coronavirus, and the study had to be halted.

Etymology and related forms: sairastua is formed from a root related to sickness and the derivational suffix -stua, yielding a verb that denotes entering a state of illness. Related terms include sairaus (illness), sairauskohtainen (illness-related), and the present tense sairastuu (he/she/it falls ill). The past singular forms are sairasti (he/she fell ill), while sairastuivat covers plural subjects.