Puhtainta

Puhtainta is the superlative form of the Finnish adjective puhdas, meaning clean or pure. It denotes the highest degree of cleanliness or purity and is used when comparing three or more items or when emphasizing ultimate cleanliness. The form can modify a noun directly or appear predicatively after a linking verb.

In Finnish, adjectives form a comparative with -mpi and a superlative with -in, with the base superlative often appearing as puhtain. The partitive singular of the superlative is puhtainta, used when the noun is in the partitive case, such as after verbs that take partitive objects or in negated contexts. Examples: Juomme puhtainta vettä. Se on puhtainta vettä, jota olemme juoneet. These constructions illustrate how puhtainta functions within sentences requiring the partitive or predicative forms.

Etymology traces puhtainta to puhdas plus the superlative suffix; the form has become a standard way to express the utmost degree of cleanliness in Finnish. Related forms include puhdas (clean/pure) and puhtaus (cleanliness, purity). Puhtainta is commonly found in descriptive writing, everyday speech, and contexts where emphasis on highest purity is intended.

See also: puhdas, puhtaus.