# savustaa / savuttaa



## Gavril

Moippa,

I’m not sure how _savuttaa _and _savustaa _differ from one another.

_savustaa _seems to be the normal term for “smoking” food: _savustaa makkaraa, _etc. It also seems to be the term used for “smoking out” something:

_Poliisi savusti varkaan kätköpaikasta._
_Mehiläishoitaja savusti mehiläiset pesästä._

In what sort of context(s) would _savuttaa _normally be used?

Kiitos


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## Hakro

_Uuni savuttaa (laskee savua sisään)
Öljylamppu savuttaa (palaa huonosti)
Moottori savuttaa (savua pakokaasuissa)_

These are the most common, I think.


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## Gavril

Hakro said:


> _Uuni savuttaa (laskee savua sisään)
> Öljylamppu savuttaa (palaa huonosti)
> Moottori savuttaa (savua pakokaasuissa)_
> 
> These are the most common, I think.



Interesting -- would there be any difference of meaning if you replaced _savuttaa _with _savuta _in these sentences?

Can you think of a sentence where _savuttaa _could be used with a direct object? (Rightly or wrongly, the _-ttaa _ending makes me expect that _savuttaa _will take a direct object rather than standing on its own.)


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## Hakro

Gavril said:


> Interesting -- would there be any difference of meaning if you replaced _savuttaa _with _savuta _in these sentences?


In my opinion _savuta_ means that the smoke doesn't come (directly) from the burning of wood or fuel. For example when _moottori savuaa_ the smoke comes from its hot oily surface and not from its exhaust pipe.


> Can you think of a sentence where _savuttaa _could be used with a direct object?


Yes, in fact I skipped two such examples because they are not very common nowadays:
_Asunto savutettiin syöpäläisten__ hävittämiseksi_.
_Sotilaat savuttivat alueen peittääkseen joukkojen liikkeet._


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## Finland

Hello!

One possible nuance difference between savuta and savuttaa is that savuttaa is more often than not unwanted, disturbing or surprising, whereas savuta usually indicates that smoke is to be expected. For example "takka savuaa" would just mean that there is fire in the fireplace, and some smoke is coming out, whereas "takka savuttaa" means that the fireplace isn't working properly, it's letting out too much smoke.

HTH
S


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