Sattumanvaraisille

Sattumanvaraisille is a Finnish inflected form of the adjective sattumanvarainen, meaning random or arbitrary. It is the allative plural form and is used to modify a plural noun in the allative case, conveying the sense of “to the randomly chosen ones” or “for the randomly chosen ones.” The form appears in formal or technical Finnish, such as research reports, survey design, and statistical writing.

In practical use, sattumanvaraisille is employed when actions or designations are directed toward groups or recipients chosen by a random mechanism. Examples include directing materials or inquiries to certain groups, or describing how participants were allocated in a study. Typical collocations include sattumanvaraisille ryhmille (to the randomly assigned groups) or sattumanvaraisille osallistujille (to randomly selected participants).

Etymology and nuance: the word is built from sattuma (chance, luck) and varainen/varainen, yielding sattumanvarainen “random/arbitrary.” The allative form sattumanvaraisille follows Finnish adjective inflection rules to agree with the plural noun and its case. In everyday Finnish, the related term satunnais- is more commonly used in statistical and sampling contexts, while sattumanvarainen carries a similar meaning but with a slightly different stylistic nuance.

See also: satunnaisuus, satunnaisotos, satunnaisluku. In usage, sattumanvaraisille tends to appear in written, technical, or formal contexts, whereassatunnais- forms often appear in broader statistical language.