ympäröivät

ympäröivät is the third-person plural present indicative form of the Finnish verb ympäröidä, meaning to surround or encircle. It is a finite verb form used when the subject of the clause is plural, for example: he ympäröivät kaupungin, meaning "they surround the city."

Grammar and forms: The present tense of ympäröidä yields the ordinary personal forms minä ympäröin, sinä ympäröit, hän ympäröi, me ympäröimme, te ympäröitte, he ympäröivät. The suffix -vät marks the third-person plural in the present tense. As a verb form, ympäröivät governs a direct object in the appropriate case (typically in the partitive or accusative, depending on context) and can appear in simple or complex sentences, including subordinate clauses with a plural subject.

Usage and nuance: ympäröivät describes both physical encirclement and figurative enclosure. For example, Rakennukset ympäröivät kaupungin muureja means that the buildings surround the city walls. In a figurative sense it can express being surrounded by circumstances or influences, as in Ne ympäröivät meidät, “They surround us.” The form is common in narrative and descriptive Finnish and can appear in diverse registers from everyday speech to formal writing.

Relation to related forms: The related verb form ympäröity means “surrounded” and functions as a past participle. The present active participle is ympäröivä, meaning “surrounding.” The noun for the broader concept of surrounding environment is ympäristö. The root meaning connects to ympäri, meaning “around,” from which many related terms are derived.