vältetään

Vältetään is the present passive form of the Finnish verb vältää, meaning to avoid, refrain from, or spare. The passive conveys that the action of avoiding is carried out by unspecified people or agents, or by general practice, rather than by a specified subject. Vältetään is commonly found in formal, instructional, and risk-related contexts where statements aim to describe what should be avoided.

Usage and function:

Vältetään is used to make impersonal statements about precautions, safety measures, or guidelines. The focus is on the avoidance itself rather than on who performs the avoidance. It often appears with nouns in the partitive form, such as haittoja, riskejä, or vaaroja, to indicate what is being avoided.

Grammar notes:

Vältetään is the present passive form. The action is transitive, taking an object that is avoided (e.g., haittoja, riskejä). The sentence structure typically omits the agent, allowing the emphasis to be on the recommended behavior or consequence of avoiding certain things. In contrast, the active form vältää specifies the doer (e.g., yritys vältää kustannuksia, "the company avoids costs").

Examples:

- Vaarallisia aineita vältetään noudattamalla turvallisuusohjeita. (Dangerous substances are avoided by following safety instructions.)

- Riskejä vältetään huolellisella suunnittelulla. (Risks are avoided through careful planning.)

See also:

Vältää (to avoid) and vältteleminen (avoiding, avoidance), as well as related Finnish safety and policy terminology.