Kuusikymmentä

Kuusikymmentä is the Finnish word for sixty, a cardinal number used to express a quantity or age. It belongs to the set of Finnish tens formed with the suffix kymmentä, following the common pattern for numbers from twenty to ninety (kaksikymmentä, kolmekymmentä, neljäkymmentä, viisikymmentä, kuusikymmentä, seitsemänkymmentä, kahdeksankymmentä, yhdeksänkymmentä). The form kuusikymmentä is written as a single word.

Etymology and form: kuusikymmentä is a compound of kuusi, meaning six, and kymmentä, the partitive form of kymmentä meaning tens. This construction mirrors the historical idea of “six tens” to denote sixty. In Finnish, numbers in this tens series are typically used without spaces or hyphens.

Usage: Kuusikymmentä functions as a cardinal number in ordinary counting, measurements, and dating contexts. It has the same syntactic role as other tens numbers, and the following noun is declined in the appropriate case. For example, kuusikymmentä euroa means sixty euros, where the noun euro is in partitive singular after a numeral. In age expressions, kuusikymmentä vuotta would be used for “sixty years.”

Variants and related forms: The tens sequence continues with seitsemänkymmentä, kahdeksankymmentä, and yhdeksänkymmentä. Finnish numerals from twenty to ninety share this -kymmentä pattern, making kuusikymmentä part of a regular system rather than a standalone word.

See also: Finnish numerals, numbers, Finnish language.