Pätkillä

Pätkillä is a Finnish term used to refer to short pieces such as short films, video clips, or excerpts. The noun pätkä is colloquial and denotes something brief or fragmented, and the form pätkillä functions as the plural locative, meaning “on/among short clips or segments.” The expression is most common in informal speech and media contexts, and it contrasts with more formal terms like lyhytelokuva (short film) or katkelma (excerpt) used in academic or journalistic writing.

Usage and meaning

Pätkä typically describes a self-contained piece that is shorter than a full-length film or program. It can refer to a standalone clip, a scene or montage within a larger work, or a short video posted online. In everyday Finnish, people may speak of “pätkiä netissä” (clips on the internet) or “seuraava pätkä” (the next clip or segment). The word carries an informal tone and is widely understood across generations, especially among viewers of online video, tv clips, or film education discussions.

Context and nuances

Because pätkä is informal, it is less common in formal film criticism or academic writing, where lyhytelokuva, katkelma, or ote are preferred. Pätkillä can appear in festival program notes, media blogs, and social media to describe short-format content. The term is flexible regarding length, as a pätkä may be only a few seconds or several minutes long, depending on the context.

Examples

- Pätkillä näytettiin vain katkelmia elokuvista.

- Seuraava pätkä julkaistaan tänään illalla somessa.