Lepäävien

Lepäävien is a Finnish grammatical form often encountered in Finnish literature and linguistics. It is the genitive plural of the present active participle lepäävä, which carries the sense “resting” or “reposing.” In Finnish, participial adjectives like lepäävä function as descriptive modifiers and decline to agree with the noun they modify. When the modified noun is in genitive plural, the participle takes the form lepäävien, as in lepäävien eläinten turkki (“the fur of the resting animals”). The construction commonly appears in descriptive prose to evoke stillness or inactivity, or to specify a group characterized by repose rather than action.

Etymology and formation: The form lepäävä is built from the verb root meaning “to rest” and the suffix -vä to denote a present active participle. The genitive plural ending -en is attached through ordinary Finnish agreement, yielding lepäävien. Usage notes: Because lepäävien is specifically the genitive plural, it typically appears when the whole noun phrase is in genitive, or when the constraint of syntax requires a genitive attribute. It is less common in everyday speech and more frequent in literary or technical contexts.

Examples: Lepäävien eläinten silmät… (the resting animals’ eyes...), lepäävien ihmisten tarinat (stories of the resting people). See also Finnish grammar, present participles, genitive.