ääntyä

ääntyä is a Finnish verb meaning to produce a sound or to become audible; to sound, to utter, or to speak with a particular tone. It is intransitive and describes a change in voice or the emergence of a sound, rather than an action directed at an object. The primary sense concerns voice, tone, and hearing.

Commonly used for natural sounds, such as birds and animals, when they begin to vocalize. In literary or descriptive Finnish, ääntyä also describes how a person speaks or sings with a certain quality of voice—soft, harsh, or emphatic. It is more formal or stylistic than everyday verbs for speaking, and it is rarely used to refer to routine conversation.

Originating from the noun ääni (sound, voice) with the derivational suffix -nty-, the word conveys a shift into a sound-producing state. It belongs to a class of Finnish verbs that express a change of state rather than a direct action on an object.

Typical grammar follows standard -ntyä verb conjugation; it forms participles similarly to other -ntyä verbs. In dictionaries it is described as an intransitive, descriptive verb.