Identtiseltä

Identtiseltä is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective identtinen, meaning identical. It is the elative singular form, used in constructions where the adjective describes a state or quality in a way that is linked to source, manner, or similarity within predicative or comparative phrases.

In everyday Finnish, identtiseltä commonly appears after verbs of perception or appraisal, especially with predicative complements. A familiar example is "Kuvat näyttävät identtiseltä," meaning "The pictures look identical." In this usage, the elative form functions as a modifier for the subject in a complement position, conveying that the subject is identified as being the same as another.

Identtiseltä is distinct from the adverbial form identtisesti, which expresses manner—how something is done—rather than a state of sameness. The adverbidenttisesti is used to describe identical manner of action, while identtiseltä addresses identity in a descriptive or evaluative sense within a clause.

Morphologically, identtiseltä is the singular elative ending for the adjective identtinen. Other case forms exist for different numbers and cases (for example, identtiseltä in singular elative, identtiseltä toimiville plural forms, etc.), reflecting Finnish’s rich case system and adjective agreement with nouns.

Etymologically, identtinen derives from a root connected to the concept of sameness found across European languages, and identtiseltä inherits this meaning through Finnish noun and adjective formation processes. The term is primarily a grammatical and lexical item used in descriptive language, linguistics, and everyday speech to express sameness or likeness. See also identtinen and identtisesti for related forms.