Selostavan

Selostavan is a Finnish grammatical form, specifically the genitive singular of the present active participle selostava, which comes from the verb selostaa meaning to describe, recount, or explain. As a participial adjective, selostava describes a noun and agrees with it in number and case. When the noun is in the genitive, the participle takes the corresponding genitive form, yielding selostavan.

In usage, selostavan functions like an ordinary descriptive adjective, translating roughly as “descriptive,” “explanatory,” or “narrative” depending on context. It is common in Finnish to see this form before a noun in genitive phrases, for example: selostavan tekstin sisältö (the content of the descriptive text) or selostavan raportin kirjoittaja (the author of the descriptive report). These constructions show how selostavan modifies the noun while the noun itself shows possession or association through the genitive.

Selostavan is not a standalone noun; it is a grammatical form used to characterize a noun. Its meaning can vary slightly with context, but it generally indicates that the described item provides description, explanation, or narrative detail about something else. In published Finnish, you may encounter selostavan used in academic, journalistic, or analytical writing to distinguish materials that are intended to describe or explain from more basic, non-descriptive items.

See also Finnish grammar, participles, adjectives, selostaa.