-int-

-int- is the active participle of the past: the root's action is over, and someone or something did it. fini gives fininta (having finished), fali gives falinta (fallen), pasi gives pasinta (past, gone by). With -e it is the classic way to say "having done": Fininte la laboron, li iris hejmen. With -o it names the person who did it: a gajninto is the winner, someone who has won.

The nuance worth holding on to is that -int- is finished business, not a simple past tense. La falinta arbo is a tree that has fallen and is now lying there; the fall is behind it. That is also how the abstract nouns arise: pasinteco is the past, the state of having gone by, and estinteco says nearly the same thing from esti.

It sits between -ant- (doing now) and -ont- (about to do). The passive partner is -it-: fininta is the one who finished, finita the thing that was finished. See the participles article for all six.