Adjektiivisanan

Adjektiivisanan is a term used in Finnish linguistic descriptions to refer to adjectives, the word class that expresses properties of nouns. In standard Finnish, the familiar label for this class is adjektiivi, and adjektiivisanan is mainly encountered in educational materials or discussions that tokenize grammar as a single word class.

In Finnish, adjectives are declined for number and case to agree with the noun they modify and, since Finnish has no grammatical gender, they do not mark gender. They occur in two main positions: attributive, before the noun (for example, "iso talo"), and predicative, with a linking verb (for example, "Talo on iso"). Finnish adjectives also have degree forms: the positive base, a comparative, and a superlative, formed by suffixes or periphrastic constructions in many cases.

Adjective usage is governed by the same syntactic rules as other modifiers: they typically precede the noun in attributive position; in predicative position they follow the copula. The term adjektiivisanan is not always used consistently across grammars, but it serves as a convenient label for discussing adjectives as a word class within Finnish grammar.