Kohteliaasta

Kohteliaasta is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective kohtelias, used in certain grammatical constructions to express relations such as “from polite” or “of polite [conduct/image].” It is not a separate lexical entry or a standalone concept; rather, it functions within the larger system of Finnish morphology as an inflected form of a base adjective. The standard noun for politeness is kohteliaisuus, and the adverb for polite manner is kohteliaasti.

In practice, kohteliaasta appears in phrases where the adjective modifies a noun in a context that requires the elative form. For example, in a phrase like kohteliaasta käytöksestä or kohteliaasta puheesta, the word kohteliaasta marks the elative relationship to the noun used in the sentence. These constructions are more common in formal or literary Finnish and are comparatively rare in everyday speech, where simpler expressions such as kohteliaisuus or kohteliaasti would be preferred depending on the sentence structure.

Usage notes:

- Kohteliaasta is primarily a grammatical form and not a distinct semantic term.

- In contemporary Finnish, politeness as a quality is more frequently discussed using kohteliaisuus (politeness) or described with kohteliaasti (politely) rather than relying on inflected adjectives alone.

- When teaching or describing etiquette in Finnish, it is common to use the noun and adverb forms rather than the elative adjective form.

See also: kohteliaisuus, kohtelias, kohteliaasti.