siivottiin

Siivottiin is the past passive form of the Finnish verb siivota, meaning "to clean." It is used to indicate that cleaning was performed on a subject, without specifying who did the cleaning. In English, it corresponds to "was cleaned" or "were cleaned." The passive construction does not state the agent; the context or other sentence elements determine who carried out the action, if that is important.

Formation and grammar: The past passive suffix in Finnish appears as -ttiin in this verb form, yielding siivottiin from siivota. The tense is past, and the passive voice does not mark number or person, so the form can refer to a singular or plural subject depending on context. The subject of the sentence is the thing that was cleaned.

Usage notes: Siivottiin is common in descriptive or reporting contexts, instructions, and talk about events where the agent is unknown or not relevant. It can be contrasted with an active construction (e.g., "joku siivosi" — someone cleaned) when the doer is specified. The passive form is often chosen to emphasize the result of cleaning rather than the actor.

Related forms: The participle siivottu means "cleaned" and is used as an adjective or in compound tenses, for example "siivottu keittiö" (the cleaned kitchen). The verb siivota belongs to the Finnish verb class that forms the past passive with -tiin/-ttiin, and its meaning is closely tied to cleaning or tidying.

See also terms include siivous (cleaning), siivoaja (cleaner), and other verbs related to housekeeping and maintenance.