Päätoimista

Päätoimista is the partitive singular form of the Finnish adjective päätoiminen, meaning “full-time” or “main/primary.” It describes an activity, role, or duty that constitutes a person’s main occupation rather than a secondary or occasional one. The term emphasizes that the work or commitment takes up the majority of the person’s time.

Usage notes:

Päätoimista is typically used with a noun in the partitive case, especially after verbs or in expressions of indefinite or non-specific scope. A common construction is to express doing full-time work. For example: Hän tekee päätoimista työtä kehitysyhteistyössä. This indicates that the work is performed on a full-time basis. The form can also appear in noun phrases where the object is not fully specified or is treated as an indefinite activity.

Relation to other terms:

Päätoiminen describes the primary nature of a role or job, while osa-aikainen or sivutoiminen denote part-time or secondary duties. In many contexts, you will encounter phrases like “päätoiminen työntekijä” (a full-time employee) or “päätoiminen johtaja” (a full-time manager). The choice between full-time and part-time terminology often reflects employment status, workload, and time commitment.

Etymology:

The word combines pää- (“main, chief”) with toiminen (“to act, to operate”). The form päätoimista signals a syntactic role as a partitive object or descriptor in Finnish sentences.