Instrumentaalisista

Instrumentaalisista is a Finnish grammatical term used to refer to a specific inflected form of the adjective instrumentaalinen, which can be translated as instrumental. In linguistic descriptions it denotes the elative plural form and is encountered when discussing how adjectives of the -inen class behave in different cases and numbers.

In Finnish, adjectives agree with the nouns they modify for number and case. The form instrumentaalisista illustrates how an adjective can take an elative plural ending, signaling a source, origin, or relation in the context of a plural noun phrase. The ending -isista is part of the broader pattern of inflected forms that Finnish adjectives exhibit when describing nouns in the elative plural.

Usage of instrumentaalisista is largely confined to academic and descriptive linguistics, such as grammars, language corpora, and glossaries. It is uncommon in everyday speech, where speakers typically use more straightforward adjective-noun constructions without explicitly labeling the inflected form.

Related terms include instrumentaalinen (the base adjective meaning instrumental) and instrumentaali (the broader concept of the instrumental in grammar). The discussion of instrumentaalisista often intersects with the Finnish elatiivi (elative case) and other case endings that govern how adjectives modify plural nouns in various syntactic contexts.