Lohduttaviin

Lohduttava is an adjective in Finnish meaning comforting or consoling. The form lohduttaviin is a specific inflected form of this adjective, used before a plural noun in the illative case. In practice, lohduttaviin modifies a plural noun that denotes something one experiences or seeks in a context of moving toward comforting things, such as lohduttaviin uutisiin or lohduttaviin tarinoihin.

Morphology and usage

Lohduttava follows the regular Finnish pattern for adjectives. When the noun it modifies is plural and in the illative case, the adjective takes the form lohduttaviin. Examples include lohduttaviin uutisiin (to comforting/ consoling news), lohduttaviin sanoihin (to comforting words), and lohduttaviin tarinoihin (to comforting stories). The base adjective can also appear in other forms: lohduttava (present participle, “consoling”), lohduttavampi (comparative, “more consoling”), lohduttavin (superlative, “most consoling”).

Etymology

The word lohduttava derives from the verb lohduttaa, meaning to console or comfort. The suffix -ttava marks the present participle/adjective form, and the ending -iin signals plural illative alignment with the associated noun. The noun form related to this family is lohdutus (consolation).

Usage notes

Lohduttaviin is mainly a formal or written construction and is most likely to appear in literary, journalistic, or analytical Finnish rather than casual speech. It functions to describe things that provide consolation when considered in a plural illative context.

See also

Lohduttava, lohduttavaan, lohduttavat, lohdutus. The illative plural form lohduttaviin specifically accompanies plural nouns in illative cases.