Kirjutatava

Kirjutatava is the genitive singular form of the Estonian present passive participle kirjatatav, which comes from the verb kirjutama (to write). The present passive participle denotes something that is to be written or is in the process of being written. As a participle, it functions primarily as an adjective, modifying a noun and describing the content or object that is to be written.

In usage, kirjatatav agrees with the noun it modifies in number and case. The form kirjatava appears when a noun in genitive singular is described by the participle, for example in phrases like kirjatava teksti lõik (a section of the text to be written) or kirjatava dokumendi pealkiri (the title of the document to be written). The same participle can take other case endings to fit different syntactic roles, with nominative kirjatatav for the subject and other forms for different cases.

A related distinction is between kirjatav (the base form) and kirjatav, kirjatav is the general sense of “to be written.” It is contrasted with kirjatatud, the past passive participle meaning “written” as a completed state. The form kirjatava is therefore a specific grammatical case form, most commonly seen in genitive constructions where it describes what is to be written.

Overall, kirjatava is a grammatical tool in Estonian for expressing prospective writing activity within noun phrases, reflecting the language’s use of participial adjectives to convey aspect and intention.