Pilotteja

Pilotteja is the partitive plural form of pilotti, the Finnish word for a pilot. In Finnish, pilotti refers to a person who operates an aircraft in aviation, but pilotteja specifically is used when the sentence concerns an unspecified or non-countable quantity of pilots as the object of an action or a preposition. It is common in everyday language to encounter pilotteja in contexts such as statements about many pilots or about pilots in a general sense.

Usage and grammar notes: The partitive plural pilotteja appears in constructions with indefiniteness or with verbs that describe ongoing, incomplete, or non-total actions. Examples include monia pilotteja (many pilots) or useita pilotteja (several pilots). It contrasts with other Finnish plural forms such as pilotit (nominative plural) and pilottien (genitive plural). Capitalization is not used for the word in normal text, except at the start of a sentence or in a title where capitalization is required.

Etymology and form: The noun pilotti is a loanword from the broader aviation vocabulary, derived from the English word pilot and circulated through Nordic languages. The form pilotteja is the standard Finnish partitive plural used after verbs and quantifiers that call for the partitive case.

See also: pilotti, partitive case, Finnish grammar.