Elintärkeän

Elintärkeän is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective elintärkeä, meaning vital or essential. It is not a standalone lexical item; rather, it appears when elintärkeä modifies a noun in the genitive case, as in elintärkeän tehtävän.

Etymology and meaning: The compound elin- derives from life, while tärkeä means important. Together they form elintärkeä, used in contexts that denote essential importance for safety, health, functioning, or outcomes. The form elintärkeän is the genitive singular used before a genitive noun.

Grammar and usage: Finnish adjectives decline to agree with the noun they modify. For elintärkeä, the genitive singular form is elintärkeän; the nominative singular is elintärkeä. With a genitive noun, elintärkeän precedes it, for example: elintärkeän merkityksen (the significance that is vital), elintärkeän tehtävän (the task that is vital), elintärkeän tiedon (the vital information).

Examples: Elintärkeän tiedon puute voi aiheuttaa virheitä. Elintärkeän tehtävän suorittaminen vaatii keskittymistä. In both cases, elintärkeän marks the adjective as modifying a noun in genitive form, conveying a high level of essential importance.

Notes: elintärkeä and its inflected forms are typical of descriptive or technical Finnish, used to emphasize critical importance in contexts such as safety, health, or decision-making. Related forms include elintärkeät (nominative plural) and elintärkeiden (genitive plural).