Pienoissa

Pienoissa is a form found in Finnish that is sometimes encountered in texts as the inessive plural of the adjective pieni, meaning small. In standard Finnish, however, the conventional inessive plural form is pienissä. The normal pattern for inessive plural adjectives is to attach the suffix -issa/-issä to the stem, with appropriate vowel harmony, so pienissä is preferred in contemporary usage.

Pienoissa is generally considered nonstandard, dialectal, or archaising. It may appear in older writings, regional varieties, or in descriptions written to evoke a particular historical or local flavor. Because it does not align with the mainstream orthographic and grammatical norms of modern Finnish, it is not typically taught in Finnish language instruction or used in formal writing.

Usage and reception

- In contemporary standard Finnish, pienissä should be used to convey “in the small ones” or “in small things.”

- Pienoissa may be noted by linguists as a nonstandard variant and might appear in dialect dictionaries or discussions of language variation, but it is not widely accepted in formal contexts.

- Learners are usually advised to prefer pienissä to avoid nonstandard or unclear forms.

See also

- Finnish grammar

- Inessive case in Finnish

- Adjective declension in Finnish

Overall, pienoissa is a nonstandard form of the inessive plural associated with pieni, mainly of interest to students of Finnish dialects, historical texts, or variation, rather than a regular part of modern Finnish.