Määrittävillä

Määrittävillä is a Finnish grammatical form that functions as the adessive plural of the present active participle from the verb määrittää (to define, specify). The base participle meaning is "defining" or "that defines." When inflected in the adessive plural, it appears as määrittävillä and is used to modify a noun in phrases where the noun is accompanied by attributes describing defining characteristics or criteria.

In use, määrittävillä typically appears in noun phrases that express that certain features or criteria are defining for the concept being described. The form is most commonly seen in formal or academic Finnish, where precision about features, rules, or conditions is important. Examples of common collocations include määrittävillä kriteereillä (with defining criteria), määrittävillä ominaisuuksilla (with defining features), and määrittävillä ehdoilla (with defining conditions). The overall sense is that the referenced nouns possess features that determine their classification or interpretation.

Morphologically, määrittävillä is produced from the present active participle määrittävä by adding the adessive plural ending -illä. The corresponding singular form for a single noun is määrittävällä, and other cases have their own forms (e.g., määrittävät in nominative plural or määrittävässä in inessive singular), but määrittävillä specifically marks plural and a location/condition-like sense (on, with, or under defining features).

Related terms include the base participle määrittävä (defining) used attributively before a singular noun, and other participial forms derived from määrittää. The construction is part of Finnish descriptive grammar and is used to convey that certain properties are essential to how something is categorized or understood.