Etäisiä

Etäisiä is a Finnish adjective form meaning distant or remote. It is the plural partitive form of the adjective etäinen and is used to describe plural nouns in the partitive case, signaling distance in space or time.

In practice, etäisiä modifies nouns as a descriptive term for things that are not close to the speaker. Because it is the partitive plural, it appears with nouns such as maita (lands), paikkoja (places), muistoja (memories), and other plural objects in the partitive. For example, etäisiä maita translates to distant lands, and etäisiä muistoja to distant memories. Finnish adjectives must agree with the noun in number and case, so etäisiä is the appropriate form for plural nouns in the partitive.

Usage and nuance: etäisiä is common in descriptive and literary contexts, including travel writing, poetry, and prose that conveys distance—whether geographic, temporal, or metaphorical. The term can express physical remoteness, cultural or conceptual distance, or emotionally distant associations. It is often used to evoke imagination or exploration, rather than everyday speech.

Related grammar notes: etäisiä derives from etä-, a bound prefix meaning far or remote, combined with the -inen adjective suffix. Other related forms come from the same root, such as etäinen for the masculine singular nominative, or etäisyys for distance, illustrating how the root governs a family of terms describing remoteness.