yristävät

Yristävät is not a standard lexical item in Finnish dictionaries. In most contexts it is encountered as a nonstandard or misspelled form of the standard present tense, third-person plural form of the verb yristää. The commonly accepted standard form in Modern Finnish for “they squint” is yristävät. Because yristävät is not recognized as a proper form, its meaning is not distinguished from the standard form when encountered outside of typographical errors or certain dialectal usages.

The verb yristää is generally understood to refer to the action of narrowing or closing the eyes, typically in reaction to bright light, to focus, or as part of a facial expression. As with many Finnish verbs, the form used in a sentence depends on the subject and the tense; standard written Finnish would use yristävät for plural present tense subjects. In practice, yristää and its present plural form yristävät appear in descriptive or narrative writing to convey a facial expression or reaction, while yristävät should be avoided in formal writing to prevent confusion.

Usage notes emphasize that yristävät should be treated as a nonstandard variant rather than a separate lexical entry. If encountered, it is advisable to consider it a misspelling or a colloquial/dialectal form and to correct it to yristävät in formal text. For language learners, focusing on the standard form helps ensure clarity and alignment with Finnish dictionaries and style guides.

See also: Finnish verbs, yristää, Finnish present tense conjugation.