Pidempiä

Pidempiä is a Finnish grammatical form that functions as the plural partitive of the comparative adjective pidempi, meaning “longer.” In Finnish, adjectives agree with the noun in number and case, and the comparative forms are inflected accordingly. When the noun is plural and in the partitive case, the comparative adjective takes the ending that marks plural partitive, producing pidempiä.

The form is used to describe more lengthy instances of a countable or uncountable set in a non-definite sense. It often appears with plural partitive nouns such as polkuja (paths), aikoja (times), or keskusteluja (conversations). For example: Kävelimme pidempiä polkuja kuin kartta osoitti (We walked longer paths than the map showed). Tarvitaan pidempiä aikoja suunnitteluun (More time is needed for planning). Pidempiä keskusteluja on aina kiinnostavaa (Longer conversations are always interesting).

Notes on usage and morphology: pidempiä is formed from pidempi by adding the standard plural partitive ending -ä (used with many adjectives in this comparative form). The positive form is pitkä, the comparative is pidempi, and the superlative is pisin. Pidempiä can modify any plural noun in the partitive case, but it cannot stand alone as a noun; it remains an inflected adjective phrase within a sentence.

In summary, pidempiä is the plural partitive inflection of the Finnish comparative adjective pidempi and is used to refer to longer instances of a noun that is in the partitive plural.