Kriitilistel

Kriitilistel is the plural adessive form of the Estonian adjective kriitiline, used when the noun it modifies is plural and in the adessive case. In practice, it marks a location or relation to a group described as critical, and appears in contexts where several people or items are described as being critical or related to criticism.

Morphology and formation: kriitiline becomes kriitilisel in the plural adessive for a singular noun, and kriitilistel when the modified noun is plural. This reflects Estonian agreement rules for adjectives with plural nouns in the adessive case. The form is not a separate lexical item but an inflected variant of kriitiline used to describe a plural referent in that case.

Usage: kriitilistel is common in academic, journalistic, and discourse contexts where groups are characterized by a quality such as being critical, analytical, or scrutinizing. It can describe people, opinions, or actions associated with criticism. Example: Kriitilistel inimestel on erinevad arvamused. Translation: The critical people have diverse opinions.

Semantic note: the adjective kriitiline derives from kriitika (criticism). The inflected form kriitilistel agrees with the plural noun it modifies, aligning case, number, and, when appropriate, definiteness. Like other Estonian adjective forms, its exact ending changes with the noun’s case and number in a sentence.

See also: Estonian grammar, adjectives, case endings, plural agreement.

References: standard Estonian grammar resources on adjective inflection and the adessive case.