Edellistä

Edellistä is a Finnish word that functions as the partitive singular form of the adjective edellinen, meaning “previous” or “former.” It is used to describe something that comes before something else in time, order, or sequence, and it appears in contexts where the noun it modifies is in the partitive case.

In Finnish grammar, adjectives agree with the noun in number and case. When the noun is in the partitive case, the corresponding form of the adjective is often in the partitive as well, which is why edellistä appears in phrases like edellistä vuotta or edellistä kertaa. For example, edellistä vuotta koskevat tilastot translates to “statistics relating to the previous year.” The base form edellinen is the positive form; its comparative and superlative forms are edellisempi and edellisin, respectively.

Etymologically, edellinen is built from the stem edell- with the common Finnish adjectival suffix -inen, and edellistä represents the partitive singular inflection of that adjective. The word is routinely used in formal writing, journalism, and everyday speech when referring to the most immediately preceding item or period.

Usage notes help distinguish it from synonyms like aiempi. While aiempi can mean “earlier” in a broader sense, edellinen emphasizes the immediately preceding in a sequence or time frame. Edellistä often appears with nouns denoting time, events, or items in a series to indicate that the referenced element is the one directly before the present or current reference point.

See also: edellinen, edellisempi, edellisin.