säilytettiin

Säilytettiin is a Finnish verb form meaning “was kept” or “was preserved.” It is the imperfect passive form of säilyttää, which means to preserve, keep, or store. In Finnish, the passive voice generally omits the agent, so säilytettiin expresses a past situation of preservation without specifying who performed the action. The form is used for various subjects, depending on context.

Formation and grammar: The verb stem säilyt- takes the passive past suffix -ettiin, yielding säilytettiin. The corresponding present passive is säilytetään (is kept/preserved). The infinitive is säilyttää; the past active is säilytti. The noun form for the act of preserving is säilytys, and a related agent noun is säilyttäjä (preserver, custodian).

Usage: Säilytettiin is common in historical descriptions, archival notes, and reports about items or records in the past. Example: “Dokumentit säilytettiin arkistossa” translates to “The documents were kept in the archive.” The agent performing the action is often implicit, but can be specified with phrases indicating by whom or by what means the preservation occurred, if needed (for example, through a separate clause or prepositional phrase).

See also: säilyttää, which is the active form meaning “to preserve,” säilytys meaning “storage” or “preservation,” and säilyttäminen for the process of preserving. In usage, säilytettiin contrasts with säilytään (present passive) and other tense forms of the same verb.