Pätevän

Pätevään is the illative singular form of the Finnish adjective pätevä, meaning competent, qualified, or capable. Like other Finnish adjectives, pätevä inflects to agree with the noun it modifies in number and case, and pätevään marks the illative case.

In Finnish grammar, the illative case often denotes movement toward or into a state described by the adjective. Therefore pätevään is used before a noun in illative, for example to express “into a competent position” or “toward a state of competence.” A typical usage is Hän siirtyi pätevään asemaan, meaning he moved into a competent/qualified position. The form can also appear in phrases referring to appropriate or proper use or state, such as pätevään käyttöön or pätevään koulutukseen, depending on context and the governing noun.

Pätevään is not a standalone concept; it is a grammatical form of pätevä. The base adjective pätevä appears in other cases and numbers (e.g., pätevä, pätevän, pätevää). Related terms include pätevyys, which denotes competence or qualifications, and other inflected forms of pätevä used across different cases.

Because Finnish requires agreement between adjectives and nouns, the illative form pätevään is common in formal or written language when describing destinations, states, or purposes associated with competence. In everyday speech, speakers may use other cases or synonyms depending on the syntactic construction.