sottratte

Sottratte is the feminine plural past participle of the Italian verb sottrarre, meaning to subtract or to take away. When used as an adjective or in compound tenses, it agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies, for example le cifre sottratte (the subtracted figures).

Etymology and forms: Sottrarre comes from Latin subtrahere. The past participle is sottratto in the masculine singular, sottratta in the feminine singular, sottratti in the masculine plural, and sottratte in the feminine plural. In sentences with avere as the auxiliary, the participle agrees with the direct object when that object precedes the verb (ho sottratto cifre sottratte), though agreement is often straightforward when the object follows the verb.

Usage: Sottratte is commonly used in mathematics, accounting, statistics, and data analysis to describe values that have been removed from a total or baseline. It also appears in general prose to denote things that have been taken away or eliminated. Examples include: Le cifre sottratte dal bilancio mostrano una riduzione del reddito; Le quantità sottratte dall’analisi modificano i risultati finali.

Linguistic notes: As a participle, sottratte functions as an adjective and derives meaning from the verb sottrarre. It is distinct from the noun sottrazione, which denotes the act or process of subtraction. The term is portable across contexts where subtraction or removal is involved, including figurative uses such as “valori sottratti” in comparative analyses.

See also: sottrarre, sottrazione, participi passati italiani.