Puutteellinen

Puutteellinen is a Finnish adjective meaning deficient, incomplete, or lacking in some essential respect. It is used to describe information, arguments, measurements, or objects that do not meet a required standard or do not have all necessary parts. For example, puutteellinen tieto refers to information that is incomplete or insufficient to draw firm conclusions, while puutteellinen raportti suggests a report that omits important details.

Etymology and form: the word comes from puute, meaning lack or deficiency, combined with the suffix -ellinen to form an adjective. The base noun puute also gives the related noun puute, referring to a lack or shortcoming. The adverbial form is puutteellisesti, and the plural adjective is puutteelliset.

Usage and nuance: puutteellinen often carries a negative or critical nuance, signaling that something falls short of a standard, requirement, or expectation. It is commonly used in academic, technical, legal, and everyday language. It is distinct from epätäydellinen (partial or imperfect in a broader sense) and riittämätön (insufficient in degree or quantity), though these terms can be related depending on context.

Examples of common collocations include puutteellinen tieto, puutteellinen todistusaineisto, puutteelliset tiedot, and puutteellinen suunnitelma. In contrast, täydellinen or riittävä describe completeness or sufficiency.

See also: epätäydellinen, vajavainen, riittämätön. In English, puutteellinen is often translated as deficient or incomplete, depending on context.