tehdä

From Proto-Finnic *tektäk (compare Karelian tehtä, Estonian tegema), from Proto-Finno-Ugric *teke- (compare Northern Sami dahkat, Erzya теемс (ťejems), Hungarian tesz; see the Proto-Uralic entry for more).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtehdæˣ/, [ˈt̪e̞hdæ(ʔ)]
• Rhymes: -ehdæ
• Syllabification^(key): teh‧dä

tehdä

1. (transitive) to do, perform, execute, carry out

   Mitä sinä teet?

   What are you doing?

   Meidän täytyy tehdä biopsia selvittääksemme oireiden syyn.

   We need to perform a biopsy in order to find out the cause of the symptoms.

   Mitä menit tekemään?

   What did you do? / What have you done? (scolding tone)

   (literally, “What did you go (to) do?”)

2. (transitive) to make, manufacture

   Tein äidilleni kakun.

   I made a cake for my mom. / I made my mom a cake.

   Mistä se on tehty?

   What is it made (out) of?

3. (transitive) to commit, perpetrate, carry out, conduct (to do, as a crime, sin, or fault)

   tehdä huorin ― to commit adultery

4. (transitive) to make, render (cause to be) (note: in "make someone happy", "someone" is the 'patient' and "happy" is the 'complement')
   1. With the patient in the elative case and the complement (noun, adjective, participle, etc.) as the object (in the accusative case).

      He tekivät minusta presidentin.

      They made me President.

      Ei se tee hänestä pahaa ihmistä.

      It doesn't make him a bad person.

      Mikä tekee ihmisestä viehättävän?

      What makes someone attractive?

      Spyker osti Saabin tehdäkseen merkistä entistäkin arvostetumman.

      Spyker bought Saab in order to make the brand even more prestigious.

      0-100 km/h–kiihtyvyys alle viidessä sekunnissa tekee autosta testaamistamme nopeimmin kiihtyvän.

      Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in under five seconds makes the car the one with the fastest acceleration out of the cars we tested.

   2. With the patient as the object (in the accusative case) and the complement (often an adjective or a participle) in the translative case.

      Hän teki minut iloiseksi.

      She made me happy.

5. (transitive, informal) to make, cost (said often by the salesperson to the customer)

   Synonym: olla yhteensä

   Se tekee viisikymmentäyhdeksän euroa.

   That makes fifty-nine euros.

6. (transitive, informal) to do a, pull a (copy or emulate the actions or behaviour that is associated with the person or thing mentioned)

   Hän teki Nykäset ja alkoi ryypätä.

   She did a Nykänen and hit the bottle.

   (Matti Nykänen, a ski jumping champion, was notorious for his heavy drinking.)

7. (transitive, usually atelic) to be in the process of
8. (stative, impersonal + genitive) to feel (+ (adjective in the) partitive)

   Minun tekee hyvää ajatella sitä.

   I feel good thinking it.

   Minun tekee pahaa ajatellakin sitä.

   I feel bad just thinking it.

9. (transitive, of animals) to have, bear (give birth to children)
10. (transitive, informal, of people) to have, bear (give birth to children)

• (to make/render): Which of the two options is used depends on the part of speech of the result. A noun is practically always expressed with the elative + accusative construction, while an adjective is primarily expressed with accusative + translative, although elative + accusative is sometimes used as well (especially when talking about personal perception or when the action does not render something into a result, but rather a consequence; see the usage examples above).
• ("do a", "pull a"; copy, emulate): What or who is being emulated is practically always in the plural, even if plural forms would not normally be used for that particular word (such as with country names).

• (to make, manufacture): valmistaa
• (to carry out, conduct): pitää
• (to cost, to pay): maksaa

• “tehdä”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

• tähde