Epäluotettaville

Epäluotettaville is the plural allative form of the Finnish adjective epäluotettava, meaning unreliable. In Finnish grammar, the allative case, marked by the suffix -lle, indicates direction toward or for something, and when applied to a plural adjective-noun phrase it yields epäluotettaville, used to refer to “the unreliable ones” as a target or recipient of an action.

Morphology and usage context: The base form epäluotettava describes reliability, while epäluotettavat functions as the plural nominative “the unreliable ones.” The allative plural epäluotettaville is formed to express “to/for the unreliable ones.” This form is primarily found in formal or written Finnish and in contexts where one speaks about directing actions, resources, or attention to a group identified as unreliable, without naming individuals directly.

Common contexts include sentences where instructions, policies, or measures are aimed at a group described as unreliable. For example: Ohjeet on suunnattu epäluotettaville työntekijöille (The instructions are directed at the unreliable employees). Kohdistimme valvontaa epäluotettaville hankinnoille (We directed oversight toward the unreliable procurements). In everyday speech, speakers may instead rephrase using a noun phrase or different case forms.

Etymology: The form derives from epäluotettava (unreliable) with the plural -t- ending, plus the allative -lle suffix. It reflects Finnish’s rich case system, where adjectives and nouns can take case endings to indicate the role of a group in a clause.

See also: Finnish grammar, allative case, noun and adjective declension, imperatives and object-marking constructions in Finnish. Note that epäluotettaville is a specialized grammatical form and may be uncommon in casual language.