Ostojen

Ostojen is a Finnish inflection associated with the noun ostos, which means a purchase or an item bought. In standard Finnish, ostos is the singular form, ostot denotes the plural, and ostosten is the genitive plural used to indicate possession or relation to multiple purchases (for example, ostosten arvo, the value of the purchases). The form ostojen is not part of the contemporary standard inflection for ostos and is generally considered nonstandard or a mistaken variant in modern Finnish usage.

In practice, speakers and writers typically use ostot for plural subjects or objects, and ostosten for phrases requiring the genitive plural. The standard genitive singular is ostoksen (of the purchase). For example, “ostosten tekeminen” refers to the act of shopping, and “ostosten arvo” refers to the value of the purchases when following correct genitive plural usage. Because Finnish morphology is highly regular, correct forms are important in formal writing and in most edited texts.

Possible origins of ostojen as a nonstandard form are uncertain; it may appear in informal writing, typographical errors, or historical texts where spelling conventions differed. In modern Finnish, however, ostojen is typically avoided in favor of ostosten or ostot, depending on the syntactic role in the sentence. For language learners, focusing on ostot and ostosten will cover the standard ways to express purchases and their relations in Finnish. See also ostos, ostokset, ostosten teko.