Adjektiivia

Adjektiivia is the Finnish term for adjectives, the words that modify nouns and pronouns by describing attributes such as color, size, or quality. In Finnish, adjectives do not encode gender, and they are used both attributively before a noun and predicatively after a linking verb, as in “talon sininen” (the house is blue) or “talo on sininen.”

Finnish adjectives decline to agree with the noun in number and case. They do not have a separate gender and follow the same inflection patterns as nouns in many forms. A typical adjective forms a set of endings when it modifies a noun: for example with the base sininen (blue), the forms include nominative singular sininen, genitive singular sinisen, partitive singular sinistä, nominative plural siniset, genitive plural sinisten, and partitive plural sinisiä. These forms show how the adjective mirrors the noun’s grammatical role rather than changing for gender.

Comparative and superlative degrees exist for adjectives, formed with the suffix -mpi and related endings. For instance, sininen can become sinisempi (bluer), which then inflects to agree with the noun in case and number, e.g., sinisempää taloa (genitive singular) or sinisemmät talot (nominative plural). Finnish also uses degree words and periphrastic constructions to express comparison in contexts where needed.

Adjektiivia, in broader usage, can be studied alongside other parts of speech in Finnish grammar and contributes to the formation of noun phrases, often accompanied by other modifiers or qualitative markers. Etymologically, the term derives from the Finnish adaptation of the Latin adjective adjectivus, and it remains a fundamental category in describing Finnish syntax and morphology.