Potilaspäätteet

Potilaspäätteet is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe the set of inflectional endings that attach to the noun potilas (patient) to express case and number. They are part of normal Finnish noun declension and are affected by vowel harmony and, in some forms, consonant gradation. In medical and general Finnish, potilaspäätteet enable precise reference to a patient in different grammatical roles, such as subject, object, or location.

The suffixes cover the standard cases and numbers used in Finnish. They allow forms for singular and plural, such as nominative singular (potilas), genitive singular (potilaan), and partitive singular (potilasta). They also apply to plural forms, enabling expressions like nominative plural (potilaat) and genitive plural (potilaiden). Beyond basic number and case, potilaspäätteet include locative cases commonly used in clinical texts, such as inessive (potilaassa), elative (potilaasta), adessive (potilaalla), and allative (potilaalle), as well as the corresponding plural forms.

In usage, potilaspäätteet help build phrases that specify where, how, or by whom something is related to a patient. For example, general grammatical forms such as potilaan potilasta specify possession or objects related to a patient, while locative forms like potilaassa or potilaalla indicate location or state concerning the patient. The same suffix system also enables the construction of patient-type or patient-group expressions when used in medical writing.

See also: Finnish grammar, noun declension, inflection, medical Finnish terminology.