Puutteelliselta

Puutteelliselta is a Finnish word that functions as the elative singular form of the adjective puutteellinen, meaning deficient, incomplete, or faulty. In Finnish, adjectives can take case endings, and the elative form (-lta/-ltä) is used to indicate something perceived or evaluated from the viewpoint of deficiency, often after verbs that express perception or judgment.

The primary use of puutteelliseltа is to describe something as appearing to be deficient. It is commonly found after verbs such as vaikuttaa (to seem), tuntua (to feel), or kuulostaa (to sound). For example, raporta vaikuttaa puutteelliseltа translates roughly to “the report seems deficient,” and käyttöohjeet vaikuttavat puutteellisilta means “the instructions appear deficient.” The form conveys a tendency or appearance rather than a confirmed fact, and it can carry a somewhat evaluative nuance.

Puutteellisesti is the corresponding adverb meaning “in a deficient/incomplete manner.” The base form puutteellinen is used when the noun itself is being described directly (for example, puutteellinen raportti = a deficient/incomplete report), whereas puutteellelta expresses the sense of deficiency from an evaluative standpoint in predicative constructions.

Related terms include puute (deficiency, lack) and puutteellinen (deficient, incomplete). In practice, puutteellisesti and puutteellisesti are common in formal writing to describe shortcomings, while puutteellinen remains the straightforward descriptor for things that are lacking or incomplete.